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LEGISLATIVE AND COMMUNITY
GRANTS STILL AN ISSUE
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The
headline in the March
2008 OCG Citizen Alert read "Secrecy
clouds $20 million grant process." At
that time OCG felt these community services grants
and legislative grants were "egregious in
the midst of the current budget crisis" but
the budget of 2008 was the golden age compared
to now. Yet these grants continue, albeit at
a reduced level of $10.6 million for Fiscal Year
FY 2009. And already legislative grants are being
doled out for FY 2010.
This report is a review of both legislative
and community services grants for FY
2009, which
includes July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009.
The selection process for legislative grants
remains a mystery, other than that they are
awarded to legislators by the Senate President
and the
House Speaker. In light of the secret process,
OCG and the public can reasonably believe the
Assembly Leadership is doling out legislative
grants for friends and favored organizations,
to help control the rank and file legislators,
and to help some incumbents get re-elected
with a photo-op of the sponsor announcing
the grant.
The Community Services Grants are buried in
the budget, are not identified or voted on
individually,
and do not have a legislator name attached.
House Legislative Grants
For FY 2009, 38 Representatives, including
6 newly elected last November and 4 who
are no
longer there, received about 235 grants
totaling about $558,000. This includes $150,000
for
Waterfire attributed to "House leadership."
- Representative
Mattiello (Cranston) received the most
money ($25,000).
- Representative
Vaudreuil (Central Falls and Cumberland)
received the
most grants (17) totaling
$15,500.
- Two
current Representatives (Edwards, representing
Portsmouth and Tiverton; and
Ucci, a candidate for Speaker in 2011, representing
Cranston and
Johnston) requested grants but
did not receive any.
- 39
current Representatives, including all of
the Republicans, did not
request any
grants.
- The
largest House grants (besides WaterFire)
were $10,000 each for the Jonah,
Inc. Community Center in Warwick (sponsor:
Ferri, representing
Warwick) and the East Bay
Community Development Corp. (sponsor: Gallison,
representing
Bristol and Portsmouth.)
- At
least 6 agencies received more than one House
grant from two different sponsors.
Senate Legislative Grants
For FY 2009, all 38 Senators received about
478 grants totaling about $1,033,373.
Those receiving
grants were in the Senate prior to the
November 2008 election. Seven are no
longer there.
The seven newly elected Senators did
not request
or receive grants.
- Former
Senate President Montalbano and current
Senate President Paiva-Weed each received
more
than $75,000.
- Senator
Walaska (Warwick) received the largest number
of grants (25)
totaling $28,500.
- Eight
agencies received $10,000 or more, with $20,000
to the Davinci
Center for Community
Progress, Inc. (sponsor: Ruggerio representing Providence
and North Providence)
- At
least17 agencies received more than one Senate
grant
from two or more Senate sponsors.
- Senators
Alves and Raptakis both requested a grant
for the West Warwick Senior Center;
only Senator Alves received $12,500.
Community Services Grants
Community
Services Grants do not have a legislator’s
name attached to them. The House finance Committee
is supposed to hear the requests for these monies.
On the day of a hearing, House Finance Committee
members are given a list of grants to be discussed
that day, but only a few on the list receive
an in depth review. These grants get buried in
the budget bill, using different executive branch
departments as a “pass through” for
these grants. Executive branches
receiving these monies have orders
for where the money is to
be given and have no say in that decision.
When the General Assembly votes
on the budget, the community
services grants
are not identified,
so the General Assembly is voting
on the budget as a whole, not
on individual
grants.
This
appears to be in violation of
Article VI, Section 11
of the RI Constitution which
states:
Section
11. Vote required to
pass local or private appropriations.
-- The assent
of
two-thirds of the members elected
to each house of the
general assembly shall
be required to every bill appropriating the public money or
property for local or private purposes.
For FY 2009, about 349 Community
Services Grants totaling
about $9 million are
granted to various entities,
some of whom also
received House and/or
Senate grants,
such as WaterFire which received another $150,000 in addition
to the House legislative
grant of
$150,000.
- The
largest grant, $528,204 went to the Children's
Crusade.
- Others
receiving grants in excess of $200,000 include
the Veterans Memorial
Auditorium Foundation, VNA Statewide (Visiting Nurses,) Crossroads RI,
and RI Meals on Wheels.
- Community
groups receiving grants encompass a wide
range of
fields including the arts, community centers,
education, health, historic
preservation, neighborhood associations, seniors, social services, sports,
veterans, and more. Some of these
grants seem worthy.
- At
least 67 of these recipients also received
legislative grants from the
House and/or the Senate.
Recommendation: OCG recommends eliminating
the legislative grants, since many already
receive Community Services Grants.
There is
no process for
legislators to vote on legislative grants. There is no
explanation of the award process,
for example why the Senate awarded the North Providence
West Little League a grant, but not the North
Providence East
Little League
or why one library,
boy
scout troop, fire district or senior center gets a grant
and another does not.
Also, OCG recommends an in-depth
review of each Community Services Grant by the House
Finance Committee and due diligence
by the
executive departments
that pass
the monies to the grantee. What the Finance Committee
and the executive departments miss could
be picked up by individual
legislators on
the House floor if these
grants are included in a separate budget article and
are not
hidden in the budget.
Access to
information: FY 2009 legislative grants are no
longer on the General Assembly
website, having been
replaced
by legislative
Grants for FY 2010 http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/LegGrants/ which gets updated periodically. Already, for
FY 2010,
the Senate has awarded
$346,500 of the $1,151,170 requested by all 38 senators.
The House has
awarded three grants totaling $16,500.
View the Community Service grants for FY
2009 at: http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/HouseFinance/2009grantgrantee.pdf
http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/HouseFinance/2009grantAgency.pdf
View
OCG’s summary of FY
2009 House Grants,
and FY
2009 Senate Grants sorted by legislators
with totals for each legislator. (links attached
here) |
