WASHINGTON - Want a piece of the $2.3 trillion budget? Here are some tips on getting your own earmarks in next year's budget:

Start now

The 2005 fiscal year doesn't start until Oct. 1, 2004, but groups that want money in that budget already are working.

Rep. Rob Portman was in Brown County this month meeting with health care officials who are seeking federal money.

"We're already planning for next year," he said, even though the fiscal 2004 budget isn't finished.

Fill out the form

Sen. Mike DeWine, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee - the committee that writes spending bills - has a standard questionnaire he makes everyone fill out explaining what the money would be used for, what the total project costs are, what its national or local significance is, and where the other money is coming from.

"We get hundreds of requests," said DeWine's spokeswoman, Amanda Flaig.

Know someone

Accu-Counter Technologies, the Crestview Hills company that got a $1.5 million earmark, used Greg Shumate as its lawyer. He happens to be the chairman of the Kenton County Republican Party.

"He had the connections we needed to get the senator's ear," company president Joe Utasi said. Shumate introduced company officials to Sen. Mitch McConnell's Northern Kentucky field representative, Kelly White.

Eventually, company officials gave a presentation to the Kentucky Republican himself during a lunch at the Cincinnati Marriott at River Center.

Hire a lobbyist

Middletown Regional Health System last year hired well-connected Cassidy & Associates. They spent $100,000 this year lobbying for a $750,000 appropriation for a new outpatient oncology treatment center, according to lobbying filings.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center spent $740,000 on Washington lobbyists and received more than $20 million. Board member John Pepper called it "good value for our money."