|  |
North Carolina
The Rhodes Report - Non-profits / Non-Oversight
By N.C. Rep. John Rhodes
North Carolina provides funding for certain non-profit organizations or private agencies that receive state funds. Some do the necessary task of complimenting state services and can be viewed helpful, such as Volunteer Fire Departments, while others are obviously wasteful spending and receive little or no oversight. The leadership in the legislature has made sure that the lack of oversight will continue.
According to the office of the state auditor, in 2003 a whopping $601,654,532.93 (in 2003 alone) left the state coffers and went into these non-profits. Of that amount $53,898,791.28 went to, are you ready for this, out of state organizations. Over $53 million went out of state to organizations in 2003 to places such as Yale University - $145,000. I know the folks up at Yale are hard pressed for cash. Others include Virginia Dept of Transportation $906,000. North Carolina is so flush with cash for roads that it can afford to peel off a cool million to other states and Banaras Hindu University $115,000 to name a few. This kind of out of state spending mutes the argument that without a lottery, we’re losing millions of dollars to other states.
The in-state non-profits total approximately $548 million. There are a total of 115 pages of non-profit grants in 2003 alone. To study all of these hundreds and hundreds of non-profits for fraud and wasteful spending detection would be staggering.
On Open/Net (a live television show produced in Raleigh) a good soldier in the legislature, Sen. Robert Pittenger (R) Mecklenburg and I recently teamed up against the House and Senate Democrat leadership to go head to head on the issues. According to Sen. Pittenger he requested additional oversight and investigation for a mere approximately 20 of these non-profits. The leadership in the Senate denied the request. What are they hiding and who is profiting from your tax dollars being misappropriated?
You may recall the non-profit scandal which funneled money to a non-profit, sold under the guise of caring for “the children”. The once N.C. Senator, turned congressman from the east, now has resigned from congress and is now a private citizen once again - he’s the guy that set the non-profit up. How many more of these scandals are out there? As long as “the gang” over in legislature remains in the leadership post, we may never know.
So how is state government responding to this dilemma? By continuing to turn their heads and look the other way and asking you to send more tax dollars to Raleigh because they’ve created another $1.3 billion budget deficit this year because of their wasteful and misappropriated spending. Interestingly enough the amount of money that has flowed to non-profits over the last several years has been $3,077,638,305. A total of 8,514 records showing where your tax dollars are going to non-profits can be found on the state auditor’s website at www.ncauditor.net. Citizens might find it interesting to go there and peel the onion, as I refer to it, and see the documentation of just where this money is supposedly going.
Some of these non-profits are worthy endeavors, many are not, but one thing has been proven as in the case above, it’s a conduit of choice for tax dollars to flow from state coffers for personal gain and could be dubbed the “Misappropriation Highway”. Your thought might be at this point, shut it down Rep. Rhodes, and expose it. My response: Well we’re trying, but we get blocked by the several likely suspects who run the place up here at the legislature. Maybe soon we’ll catch them asleep at the wheel and cause the whole House of cards to come crashing down. North Carolina is a state in transition, the way business has been done for decades here in Raleigh is changing as well. The dark veil that once shrouded state government is being stripped away. Keep hope in that.
Rep. John Rhodes can be contacted in his legislative office at 919-733-4111
Get “The Rhodes Report” 24/7
Legislative Update Toll Free Hotline for citizens from Murphy to Manteo to call in for a weekly legislative update of the good, the bad, the ugly, and “the truth” of what is really going on in their state government. Contact “The Rhodes Report” legislative hotline at
1-866-RHODES2 / 1-866-746-3372. Because sometimes the media sources just can’t quite get the “whole” story right about what “really” goes on in Raleigh.
 
Home |
|
