Two days in the kitchen yields plenty of legislative pork

Bacon Hill lived up to its name last week.

The House added a ton of pork-barrel spending to the budget, rejected tax cuts and dispensed with 1,200 amendments in two short days. That’s right. Our state representatives debated the $41 billion budget for only two days — and none of them is a speed reader.

As the commonwealth is facing a revenue shortfall, representatives increased spending by $77 million. Buried in the secret bundled amendments was millions of dollars in earmarks of pork.

What non-vital projects are our tax dollars funding?

The Waltham Tourism Council is getting $75,000. Who knew Waltham was a hotbed of tourism?

Local anniversary celebrations received major money, including $25,000 for Peabody’s 100th, $100,000 for Swansea’s 350th, and $50,000 for Plymouth’s 400th. Why should taxpayers from across the state be funding these events?

The Quintana Center Immigration Legal Clinic is getting $30,000. Taxpayers cannot get a sales tax holiday weekend but “immigrants” are getting funding. Priceless.

Newton, which just became a sanctuary city, is receiving $150,000 for traffic improvements. If it doesn’t want to obey our laws, that city should not get an extra dime.

What’s a budget without gazebo funding? Twentyfive thousand dollars of our money is going toward the Michael Blatus Memorial gazebo in Dracut. West Roxbury got lucky with a whopping $250,000 earmark for Main Street’s Parkway Community Pavilion construction project.

We are paying $100,000 for beach revitalization in Swansea. Its town meeting just voted to spend $3.9 million on this project, so this state money is just a headline gift for a legislator.

Attorney General Maura Healey’s office is receiving millions more. Maybe she should rescind her order on guns, so we don’t have to fund the lawsuits against her.

There’s $175,000 for tree re-planting in Worcester. And $50,000 is going to help the town of Sherborn for preservation of historic documents.

Representatives were supportive of the arts. We are funding $50,000 for the LuminArtz for public art displays, $75,000 for the Springfield Performing Arts Development Corporation, $100,000 for the Zeiterion Theatre Inc. in New Bedford, and $25,000 for New Bedford Festival Theatre.

And let’s not forget the biggest pork of the year: Legislators voted themselves pay raises costing us $18 million!