An oversight two years ago by the Secretary of State’s office, which has developed into a $125,000 budget hole, will be partially corrected if the Legislature approves an emergency spending plan endorsed Friday by the Appropriations Committee.
The committee voted unanimously in favor of the 2009 Emergency Supplemental Budget after weeks of working on it. Overall, the measure was necessary to account for more than $140 million in decreased state revenues along with some upward adjustments to cover unanticipated costs.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap on Friday explained to the Appropriations Committee that because of an oversight for which he claims responsibility, his office did not file a routine financial order in 2007 that would have funneled money from a 2007 bond package into an account used to pay election costs.
As a result, that money flowed into the General Fund instead, leaving a shortage of funding to pay for printing and postage associated with the June 2007 primary election. Those bills were paid in the following fiscal year, leaving another funding shortage for the November 2008 election, which cost more than expected.
Dunlap requested $125,000 in the pending supplemental budget so the problem can stop being pushed forward and so a vendor, J.S. McCarthy Printers in Augusta, can be paid $70,000 it is owed now instead of later.
“This is a ball that we dropped,” Dunlap said during an interview. “We had to do a financial order and it went under the radar. As a result, some money went into the General Fund.”
Gov. John Baldacci and his financial advisers denied Dunlap’s request for $125,000 during the development of the supplemental budget package.
“We didn’t feel we were in a position to be spending resources we didn’t have… so we did not include that request in the budget,” said Dept. of Administrative and Financial Services Commissioner Ryan Low, to the Appropriations Committee last week.
The Appropriations Committee voted to spend about $70,000 in found savings so that J.S. McCarthy can be paid in the current fiscal year. After the vote, Dunlap said the remaining $55,000 derives from internal costs, such as postage, a problem that he’ll try to rectify in the next fiscal year.
Rick Tardiff, president and chief executive officer for J.S. McCarthy, declined to discuss the matter with a reporter on Monday.
The Legislature was scheduled to take up this request, along with the rest of the supplemental budget, this week. The Legislature was scheduled to be in session on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
(Statehouse News Service)
