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| Nonprofits formed by three legislators go unaudited |
| 2009-11-16 |
| Two nonprofit corporations creÂated by three legislators in 2006 have received hunÂdreds of thousands in taxÂpayer dollars but have yet to undergo a required state auÂdit. The two groups created in 2006 have so far received $800,000 in state coal severÂance money, according to the Alabama Department of Finance. A legislator who created one of the groups said money has been sent to schools and volunteer fire departments, but he could not immediately produce a record of how the public money going to their nonÂprofit has been spent. In spring 2006, the AlaÂbama Legislature approved a bill that took a portion of the state's coal severance tax revenue and gave the money to various organizaÂtions. The new law dictated that Marion County Community Development Association Inc. and West Alabama DeÂvelopment 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, DÂ-Russellville, and two memÂbers of the House of RepÂresentatives, Mike Millican, D-Hamilton, and William Thigpen, D-Fayette, created the two nonprofits five months later, according to incorporation records. Repeated efforts to reach Bedford by phone and eÂmail and Millican by phone were not successful. In September 2006, Bedford and Millican incorporated the Marion County CommuÂnity Development AssociaÂtion Inc. Bedford, Thigpen and Fayette County Probate Judge William Oswalt creÂated the West Alabama DeÂvelopment Association of Fayette County Inc. in SepÂtember 2006. According to state incorÂporation records, the purÂpose of both nonprofit groups is to strengthen their respective counties and the surrounding area through "economic and community development projects." Although both groups were incorporated as nonÂprofits, neither has received federal tax-exempt status, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Oswalt referred questions to Thigpen and Bedford about how the Fayette County group has spent the money it has received. "I think we've given some (money) to schools, to volÂunteer fire departments, for some road work, but you need to talk to the other two," Bedford and Thigpen. Thigpen said the group had sent money to schools, volunteer fire departments and "other things." He reÂferred questions to Oswalt, who he said serves as treaÂsurer of the group. Thigpen said decisions about who or what got money form the nonprofit were usually made over the telephone. "It takes a vote of two of the three of us to approve any spending, and we usuÂally do that over the phone," Thigpen said. |
| Posted by:Fred |