A sometimes controversial source of funding that cities, counties and non-profits across the state and the Twin Lakes Area have tapped into for the past 20 years for financing numerous community projects has been depleted.
Since 1997, cities, counties and non-profits across the state have received state funding through a program known as the General Improvement Fund (GIF). The source of the funds came from state budget surplus.
Over the 20 years, the surplus dollars have been allocated in different ways. A state Supreme Court ruling in 2005 led to a large chunk of the funds being distributed among eight economic development districts around the state.
What followed was a grant process whereby applications were submitted to the economic development boards for consideration, generally accompanied by verbal or written support from a state legislator. The membership of the boards is comprised of the mayors and judges in the counties represented in each economic district, as well as a designated number of private citizens.
While cities, counties and non-profits continued tapping into the surplus dollars, an investigation was quietly underway that would lead to a State Representative pleading guilty to conspiring with a State Senator to use their official positions to appropriate General Improvement Funds to two nonprofit organizations in exchange for bribes.
In January, a week after the former state legislator entered his guilty plea, Governor Hutchinson in a strongly-worded message urged the legislature to eliminate the GIF program. When the legislative session ended in April, the GIF program was not included in the 2018-2019 budget.
With dollars remaining from the previous legislative session, cities, counties and non-profits continued submitting applications requesting funding. But the Executive Director of the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District in Harrison, Joe Willis, says most people will be surprised to learn all the funds have been disbursed.
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Willis says General Improvement Funds have been used to cover a host of programs across the nine counties in the Northwest Arkansas Economic District that includes Baxter, Marion, Searcy, Newton, and Boone counties.
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Willis says much of the dollars distributed through the General Improvement Fund was the only means for these non-traditional requests to gain financial support. He says many of the requests do not fit in a box for typical state and federal grant funding.
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