In 1981, The U.S. Department of Commerce spent $28,600 — $93,669 in 2022 dollars — to decide how best to spend another $250,000 — or $818,787 — to find a good surfing beach in Honolulu.
That frivolous spending earned the federal agency a Golden Fleece of the Month award from Sen. William Proxmire.
Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, gave awards to wasteful and nonsensical spending, eventually handing out 168 Golden Fleece Awards between 1975 and 1988.
The federal agency gave the city and county of Honolulu the money to hire an outside consultant to “find a good surfing beach,” Proxmire said in 1981.
“Keep in mind, Hawaii is packed with expert surfers, most of whom already know the good surfing spots like the backs of their surfboards, and some of whom already work for the city and county of Honolulu and could do the job for free,” Proxmire said.
Two surfers had sued the Hawaiian Electric Company for disrupting a surfing beach by expanding a power plant. The utility company paid the city and county $250,000 to create another surfing beach, with the city and county asking for and receiving another $28,600 from the Dept. of Commerce to fund a study to find that new beach.
“Spending tax dollars to study where the surf’s up is certainly not on most people’s list of national priorities,” Proxmire said.
Quoting a Honolulu Councilman Rudy Pacarro, said, “I know the money is free but it’s taxpayers’ money. In Parks and Recreation, we have some people who have been surfing all their lives. And we’re going to pay a guy $28,600 to tell us where to put the damn place? That’s a lot of horse manure.”
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