PrintNovember 16, 2009
Corruption or worse?
The Alabama Legislature passed a bill budgeting hundreds of thousands of state dollars to a couple of nonexistent nonprofit organizations. Three Alabama Democrat State Legislators created two nonprofit organizations 5 months after the bill in 2006 to receive grants from the taxpayers, totaling $800,000. They have yet to explain where the money went.
Birmingham News reporter Kim Chandler reports:
In spring 2006, the Alabama Legislature approved a bill that took a portion of the state's coal severance tax revenue and gave the money to various organizations. The new law dictated that Marion County Community Development Association Inc. and West Alabama Development Association of Fayette County Inc. would each receive $100,000 a year of the tax revenue. But those two groups didn't exist at the time the law was passed, according to secretary of state incorporation records.Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, and two members of the House of Representatives, Mike Millican, D-Hamilton, and William Thigpen, D-Fayette, created the two nonprofits five months later, according to incorporation records.
Audits required by law have not been performed on the groups receiving these funds. Could this be tax money funneled to political groups? ACORN is the most prominent example of a leftist political group masquerading as a nonprofit and cashing in on taxpayer funds. But there are many others, no doubt.
Of course, this could be more mundane corruption. Exactly why were the audits skipped?
Of course, this could be more mundane corruption. Exactly why were the audits skipped?
