FRANKFORT — Kentucky Transportation Secretary James Codell can recall the years in which federal transportation dollars were carried by political currents toward the Northeast.

        Powerful people in Congress always saw to that — House Speaker Tip O'Neill of Massachusetts, Senate Finance Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, House Transportation Chairman Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania.

        Because of politics, Kentucky sent more fuel-tax money to Washington than it got back in highway dollars. “We're a donor state,” Mr. Codell said.

        Maybe not for long.

Process on state's side

        Mr. O'Neill, Mr. Moynihan and Mr. Shuster are gone, but the process remains the same — political as ever. The difference is that Kentucky now is a beneficiary of the politics.

        U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, blessed with seniority, this year took over the chairmanship of the House's budget subcommittee on transportation. Not coincidentally, a new transportation appropriations bill contains at least $142 million for Kentucky — more than double the state's portion last year.

        In total dollars, Kentucky ranked 10th among the 50 states and District of Columbia. In per capita terms, Kentucky was fourth, trailing only Alaska, West Virgina and Hawaii.

        Each of those states had a senator — a very senior senator — on the House-Senate conference committee that negotiated the final spending bill. Kentucky had Mr. Rogers. How important was that? Neighboring states Tennessee, Ohio and Indiana had no one on the conference committee. They ranked 22nd, 25th and 37th in funding. In per-capita funding, Indiana and Ohio were next-to-last and dead last, respectively.

        Leslie County, on the other hand, did quite well. The appropriations bill contained $4 million for an access road to the Clay-Leslie industrial park and $2 million for a parking garage in Hyden, population 204 in the 2000 census.

        The latter project probably has a shot at inclusion in the next edition of The Pig Book, an annual publication of Citizens Against Government Waste, an organization that tut-tuts anything it perceives to smack of pork.

        It uses The Pig Book to flail any senator or representative it considers to have used the appropriations process for personal or political advantage. Mr. Rogers has been among its many targets.

        “I wouldn't say he was one of the top five offenders, but he's in the top 10 or 15,” David Williams, a vice president of the organization, said in a telephone interview.

        To be defined as pork by Mr. Williams' organization, a project must meet at least two of these criteria: Local interest only. Requested by only one chamber. Not specifically authorized or not authorized at all. Not competitively awarded.

Home state spending

        The irony for Mr. Williams' organization is that inclusion in The Pig Book only enhances a congressman's standing back home.

        “We try to convince people that when you vote for someone who sends pork back home, you're basically selling your vote,” he said. “It's kind of like anonymous bribe-taking.”

        Not exactly a message that resonates. Of Kentucky's appropriation, Mr. Codell the transportation secretary said: “We're delighted with it, and it's due to the congressman's efforts that we got it.”

        Mr. Rogers himself is unapologetic. It matters not that some other states with more people and more miles of highway got less money.

        “It's terribly expensive to build roads in Kentucky. The terrain is some of the most severe in the country for road building,” Mr. Rogers said in a telephone interview.

        Besides, he said, “We're way behind. We've not kept up with the rest of the country.”

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