Are you kidding me? A colleague sent me this from the The Post and Courier. This really makes me wonder about the vetoes we are taking up tomorrow.
Governor Sanford found what he thought were 69 items we could do without this year. Just think what he DIDN’T find!
I’ve often heard that “people in the know” have ways to hide things that can never be found but with this year being the “Year of Disclosure” (Earmark Reform, Campaign Finance Reports online), I thought we had stopped all this.
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Schools act as money funnels
By Diane Knich
The Post and Courier
Sunday, June 1, 2008
South Carolina legislators are using some of the state’s public universities as funnels, quietly channeling nearly $2 million in tax dollars to their favorite charities during the past three years, a Post and Courier investigation found.
Some legislators sent this money to nonprofit groups with which they have direct ties. For instance, state Rep. David Mack, D-North Charleston, has sent $700,000 through South Carolina State University to a Columbia-based nonprofit organization where he works and receives money.
But it was far from an isolated case. The newspaper’s analysis found that legislators funneled money through most of the state’s major public institutions of higher learning.
The practice raises questions about conflicts of interest and how legislators distribute public money.
“It looks like a way to camouflage money to do something they can’t do or don’t want to do directly, something that might be politically embarrassing,” said John Crangle, director of the government watchdog group Common Cause South Carolina.
Here’s how it works: State legislators take money from the state budget and tuck it into universities’ state appropriations — sometimes without the schools’ prior knowledge. The universities then hand over that money to the charities.
The Post and Courier requested information, under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, from seven of the state’s largest public universities about money legislators had them pass through their budgets to charity groups over the past five years. Legislators went through all of the schools except the College of Charleston and The Citadel to funnel tax dollars.
State politicians for years have used budget mechanisms to send tax dollars to pet projects. But the amounts tend to be higher for money funneled through universities.
In Mack’s case, he sent $300,000 to S.C. State in the 2006-07 school year and asked the university to send the money to a Columbia-based nonprofit organization called the Palmetto Center for Advocacy. The center conducts health education programs statewide, especially obesity prevention programs.
Mack sent the group another $400,000 through S.C. State in the 2007-08 school year.
Anastasia Shaw, deputy director for Palmetto Center for Advocacy, said the $700,000 from the state is the only money the group has brought in so far. But, she said, the center is “looking to diversify funding.”
According to the group’s Web site, Mack is employed as its “outreach director.” In a telephone interview, Mack said he now does consulting work for the group and previously was the organization’s interim director. He also said he is paid for all of his work with the center but declined to say how much.
By law, nonprofits must allow the public to view tax forms, which include salaries of directors. But the center is relatively new, so its tax records are not yet publicly available.
When asked why he chose to send the money through the university instead of going through the state’s competitive grants program, Mack said, “We just chose that way.” [Read more…]