Dear HCN,
Jon Margolis often has
interesting insights, but his article titled “The Land and Water
Fund waits to be tapped” naively misses the bigger picture (HCN,
2/16/98). It is true that the Land and Water Trust Fund is not
managed like a trust fund dedicated to conserving land and
water.
But the misuse of federal trust funds is
typical.
As I write, S. 1173, which reauthorizes
the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA),
authorizes $50 million for parkways and $20 million for wildlife
refuges. Some highway users must wonder why environmental lobbyists
are pressuring Congress to “loot” the Highway Trust Fund to
purchase wildlife habitat. This is fine with me, but I cannot
complain about mismanagement of the Land and Water Trust Fund and
ignore the mismanagement of the Highway Trust
Fund.
Margolis failed to observe that the
granddaddy trust fund – the Social Security Trust Fund – is a joke.
There is no trust fund and there are no trustees. The taxes
deducted from workers’ pay checks today are used to pay current
obligations of retired folks and the remainder is spent on all
manner of things, including national defense, welfare and the
salaries of federal
employees.
Craig S.
Harrison
Washington,
D.C.
The
writer is an environmental
attorney.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Funds are routinely looted.
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