(Washington, D.C.) - Beginning on Tuesday, February 17, 2009, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) launched an advertising campaign opposing the use of any of the so called economic stimulus money for the construction of the O’Hare Modernization Program (OMP). 

This effort is part of CCAGW’s long history of fighting egregious boondoggles, including Boston’s Big Dig and Denver’s International Airport, both of which were late and over budget.  It is also related to CCAGW’s lobbying campaign against the stimulus package itself. 

While Congress and the Obama Administration promised to spend the stimulus money within the next two years, the Congressional Budget Office found that less than half of the infrastructure money included in the bill would be spent during that time.  That timetable would be further extended if a project such as the OMP were funded by the Department of Transportation.

The OMP is far from “shovel-ready.”  The project is mired in legal challenges, the airlines which use O’Hare and would presumably benefit from a reduction in delays there are now balking at providing further funding and questioning the plan itself, the city of Chicago is struggling with a massive deficit, and the Federal Aviation Administration is questioning the project’s effectiveness.

CCAGW plans to run print ads in newspapers in the Chicago market throughout this week.  The organization will continue to lobby against the OMP whether or not the money is provided from the stimulus or another source in the federal or state government.

Unfortunately, taxpayers are often saddled with these large projects and don’t find out how poorly conceived and badly managed they are until millions and millions of dollars have already been spent.  In the case of the OMP, taxpayers have an opportunity to stop this project before it gets too far along, as CCAGW’s advertisements give them a chance to contact their legislators to say no to the OMP.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.