Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington, D.C.-based government spending watchdog, named U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor of North Carolina, R-11th, its Porker of the Month in August for “burnishing his credentials as an unabashed champion of pork-barrel spending.”

“Rep. Taylor shows no shame when it comes to flaunting his pork projects,” CAGW said in a press release.

CAGW said Taylor, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee chairman, hosted an exclusive reception in Asheville early this month for the Sparta Teapot Museum. CAGW gave the museum its Tempest in a Teapot Oinker Award in its 2006 Congressional Pig Book for the $500,000 earmark it received in the fiscal 2006 Transportation/Treasury/Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act.

But other than lending his name to an educational event, not a fund-raiser, about the museum, Taylor had no role in securing public funds, spokeswoman Deborah Potter said. Taylor did not attend the Asheville event.

“That was not our project,” Potter said, adding that the CAGW press release contained other errors.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, and U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-10th, both pushed for the federal spending on the museum.

But still, Taylor has not been shy about his appetite for pork, CAGW said. The group alleged that in a letter to the Asheville Citizen-Times in May, Taylor’s chief of staff, Sean Dalton, “proudly” compared his boss to Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, “two of the biggest porkers in Congress.” Byrd has embraced his title of King of Pork, while Stevens is well-known for defending the much-maligned “Bridge to Nowhere” project in Alaska, CAGW said.

“Anyone who puts Sens. Byrd and Stevens on a pedestal is oblivious to the dire budget realities facing the government,” CAGW’s press release said.

But Dalton’s actual letter to the Citizen-Times contained no references to Byrd or Stevens, much less “proud” comparisons. CAGW cited an article in The Hill, a newspaper in Washington that covers Congress, as the source for its information.

CAGW also said Taylor “is well on his way to following in Sen. Stevens’ footsteps” with his own “Road to Nowhere.” The 30-mile road was promised to residents of Swain County in 1943 to replace one that was destroyed to create a lake and national park, but construction was stopped for environmental reasons in the late 1960s and never resumed. Taylor wants to spend an estimated $590 million in federal funds to finally complete the road, CAGW said, despite what it says is the county’s willingness to give up the project in exchange for a smaller federal reimbursement of $52 million.

Taylor’s office said the road could be constructed for as little as one-fourth of the $590 million, a figure that is often cited by environmentalists who oppose the road.

“He is a steadfast supporter of the road,” Potter said. “A promise is a promise.”

Those two counties also deserve some kind of financial settlement as well as the road, Potter said, because it has taken so long for the federal government to fulfill its promise.

CAGW also said Taylor followed in the mold of Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., a senior Democrat on the House Ethics Committee who had to resign his post for securing millions of dollars in earmarks that might have benefited him personally. Taylor has come under fire for adding earmarks for the nonprofit Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas, which he helped to create.

“The ERC gets 100 percent of its funding from government grants, and ERC directors have contributed to Taylor’s campaigns,” CAGW said.

But according to Taylor’s office, the ERC is simply a collaboration of colleges and universities in western North Carolina who try to coordinate efforts in getting federal grants and funding for their individual schools. Taylor, being their representative, does try to help them reach their financial goals.

Last year Taylor received a 73 percent favorable rating from CAGW for his congressional votes in support of taxpayers’ interests. The prior year his vote was 55 percent favorable. But the American Conservative Union gives Taylor a 92 percent favorable lifetime rating.

Potter said Taylor has long fought for waste-reducing legislation, including a federal balanced budget amendment and a presidential line-item veto.

At the same time, she added that Taylor is responsible for bringing federal money into western North Carolina, including funds to improve schools, hospitals, health-care systems, building broadband Internet infrastructure, math and science laboratories for schools, and a “destination center” for the Blue Ridge Parkway.

“I don’t believe he would ever apologize for a single one of these projects, because they are vital for western North Carolina,” Potter said.

Paul Chesser ([email protected]) is associate editor of Carolina Journal.