Bailout bill has high earmark level

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- As they crafted a bill designed to rescue the credit industry, U.S. senators quietly added billions of tax-break dollars for private projects, lawmakers say.

Those additions, called earmarks, covered many things that appeared to have little to do with restoring faith in the financial markets, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

They were hardly noticed, reports said, as lawmakers debated the $700 billion bailout bill. A similar measure lost in a vote Monday in the U.S. House of Representatives but was revised -- with the added funding issues -- and passed Wednesday by the Senate. The House was to consider it Friday, despite an added price tag said to be about $100 billion.

Among added projects listed by the Chronicle, were a $2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children, a $100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners, $192 million in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry and $148 million in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers.

Many of the tax breaks had been in place for years and were about to expire, the newspaper said.