RESEARCH

Our 2014 Pork Report is finally here. Below is the interactive version of our pork report. If you would rather read the PDF version, you can read that here. The ninth annual annual Tennessee Pork Report, exposed an astonishing $609 million in state and local government waste. The $609 million is the highest amount of government waste uncovered in a single year since Beacon started publishing the report. Examples of wasteful spending outlined in the 2014 Pork Report include:

• More than $180 million in wrongfully paid unemployment benefits by the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development, which includes benefits to felons and dead people. This blunder takes the prize of “Pork of the Year” in the report.
• A school district with a $48.4 million blunder, where equipment—including computers and even cars—somehow came up missing.
• $42.2 million on a swanky jetport in Cleveland to service high-end fliers.
• $33 million towards a riverboat dock in Memphis that has been an unmitigated disaster so far.
• A record-breaking $1.9 million wasted on state-owned golf courses.

“With more government waste, fraud, and abuse this past year than any before, the 2014 Pork Report will leave taxpayers seeing red,” said Beacon CEO Justin Owen. “It’s time for Tennesseans to start holding their elected officials accountable for the rampant misuse of their hard-earned money.” Enjoy the Pork Report? Help us keep it going with a tax-deductible gift.