Federal earmarks decrease the amount of flexible transportation money for states and divert money from higher priority projects.
For example, Congress authorized more than $1 billion in federal earmarks to Alaska in SAFETEA-LU. Because these earmarks are counted against the rest of the money intended for the state, about $119 million per year for other state highway projects in Alaska will be displaced by the earmarking.28 Moreover, earmarks alone frequently do not cover the entire expense for a project, placing additional burdens on state transportation budgets.
Two of the most notorious Alaska earmarks-the "Bridge to Nowhere" project, that will link Ketchikan, Alaska, to Gravina Island, and the Knik Arm Crossing between Anchorage and Matanuska-Susitna Borough-were underfunded and would have required significant state investment if the projects had not been eliminated by Congress in November 2005. Planners estimated costs for completion of the Gravina bridge project at $300 million and for the Knik Arm project at $600 million. Congressional earmarks for the Gravina project totaled only $223 million and for the Knik Arm project only $229 million before they were eliminated during negotiations for the SAFETEA-LU appropriations bill.