The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee narrowed down three finalists to be considered for its 2024 Pork of the Year title.
Each year, the Beacon Center publishes its annual Pork Report highlighting the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars across the Volunteer State, with the biggest waste of taxpayer money being crowned as Pork of the Year.
IT’S HERE! Today, the Beacon Center released the three nominees for Pork of the Year.
Unlike in past years, this year’s Pork Report features the top three instances of government waste in the state. The “winner” of the Pork of the Year will be chosen by the people of Tennessee…
— Beacon Center of TN (@BeaconTN) December 17, 2024
While last year’s Pork Report did not include a Pork of the Year title, the 2022 Pork Report identified the funding and proposals of many sports stadiums across the state as the year’s biggest waste of taxpayer money.
This year, the Beacon Center has identified three top wastes of taxpayer money in the state as contenders for Pork of the Year in what the think tank is calling “Bluff City Blunder,” “‘Friends’ with Benefits,” and “NFL: Nashville Funding Losers.”
“Bluff City Blunder” is what the Beacon Center is describing the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s (MATA) “waste” of tens of millions of tax dollars on Grizzlies suites, furniture, and an office in a downtown skyscraper instead of on transit.
MATA’s spending comes as the service has been reportedly found to be running a $60 million deficit and experiencing a decline in ridership.
The Beacon Center’s next contender for Pork of the Year, “’Friends’ with Benefits,” is the Lebanon City Council’s approval of a $1.5 million incentive package for an unnamed sit-down restaurant planned for the city’s west side.
Finally, the last contender for this year’s biggest waste of taxpayer money is “NFL: Nashville Funding Losers,” which is the NFL’s demand that $80,000 in upgrades be made to Nissan Stadium while the new $2.3 billion Titans stadium is being constructed.
Tennesseeans can vote on this year’s Pork of the Year in the Beacon Center’s January poll.
The winner will be announced on January 6.
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
