The first in an occasional series by WGBH News and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.
This July, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed $37.4 million in what are called earmarks — special amendments to the budget by legislators for particular projects and organizations they want to see funded.
Earmarks are a small part — less than one percent — of the state's almost $38 billion budget, and no one on Beacon Hill was surprised when the Democrat-dominated legislature easily overturned all but a few of the governor’s vetoes.
Some of the organizations receiving that money, though, appear to have failed to meet, or to have barely met, basic financial reporting requirements, a review by WGBH News and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting found.
Earmarks are a time-honored way for legislators to advocate for their districts. But they also circumvent the state’s normal contracting and procurement procedures and can be subject to little internal vetting.
Take, for example, an earmark sponsored by state Sen. Anthony Petruccelli, authorizing $75,000 for a "job readiness program" at East Boston High School, to be implemented by the National Youth Development Council.
What exactly the program consists of, and who, exactly, will be implementing it, are less than clear.
Contacted by phone, East Boston High School headmaster Phillip Brangiforte said he was aware that funds had been approved, but didn’t know exactly what the program was or whether it would be implemented. After that conversation, Brangiforte did not return another call seeking clarification.
A conversation with Richard T. Smith, president of the “National Youth Development Council,” named to run the $75,000 program, yielded more questions about the group.
In an interview with WGBH News, Smith claimed the program would not, in fact, take place at East Boston High, but that he couldn’t say where it would take place, and declined to give details about what the program would consist of. Smith, who claims his program has been used in schools "all over the country" declined to provide any examples, saying the information was "confidential."
Smith represents himself on the organization’s website as a veteran who served two tours of duty as a U.S. Army pathfinder, as well as the “former news director of the United Nations New World News Network,” though nothing by that name could be found online.
The group’s website, until recently, listed WCVB television reporter Rhondella Richardson as the board of directors' chairperson — but Richardson, in an email, says she has not spoken with Smith in years and had asked to be removed from the website and any paperwork. Attorney Charles Devine, listed as the group’s "legal counsel," said in a phone call that he had helped Smith incorporate several years ago but hadn’t spoken with him in at least several years. Financial planner Michael Finer, listed as treasurer on the group's website and in corporate filings, says he did help Smith incorporate years ago but had not been in contact for several years, and didn't know he was still listed as treasurer. Brenda Jones, listed as contact person for the organization, declined to speak to us on the phone.
WGBH News' and NECIR's Twitter bot tweets budget earmarks:
In response to further inquiries, Smith said he was “not looking for questions” and that someone from his organization would provide an email address for further correspondence, though none was later provided.
Despite claiming tax-exempt 501(c)3 nonprofit status, the organization has neither registered nor filed annual reports with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, as generally required of nonprofit charities.
And documents submitted to the Massachusetts Secretary of State show that Smith submitted four years of required annual reports on a single day this March, just before the amendment to fund his organization was introduced.
The office of Petruccelli, who sponsored the earmark, acknowledged the senator’s support but did not address questions about the organization itself.
The Attorney General’s office, responding to our queries, said that it is now contacting the National Youth Development Council about reporting requirements.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with earmarks, says Noah Berger, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a group that pushes for transparency and fairness in government and public spending.
"Earmarks, like every other part of government, can be good, or can be bad — it’s a matter of judging the merits of each individual one," Berger said. "The important thing about earmarks is that they should be subject to the same standards as everything else."
But often, they aren’t.
Another earmark in the 2016 budget: $30,000 to fund a health awareness and diabetes prevention program in Springfield, to be implemented by “COGIC Family Services, Inc.”
The organization shares an address, and indeed the same phone number as the Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in Springfield, Mass — raising the potential question of whether it crosses the fine line in the Massachusetts constitution prohibiting public funding of religious institutions.
Bishop Talbert Swan II is pastor of the church and also CEO of COGIC Family Services, Inc., as well as president of the Greater Springfield NAACP and the nephew of state Rep. Benjamin Swan, in whose district the church is located.
Swan says the programs are separate, and that the earmarked organization is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.
But it isn’t registered as a charity with the state attorney general’s office, nor listed as a tax-exempt organization by the IRS (a separate organization with an almost identical name, “COGIC Family Services Corp.,” had its nonprofit status revoked last year).
And while COGIC Family Services has filed annual reports with the Secretary of State — the only paperwork generally vetted by Senate Ways and Means committee staff — it filed the last two years' worth of reports this week, after we contacted it with questions.
Swan did not return an email asking for clarification of the organization’s nonprofit status.
State Sen. James Welch, who sponsored the earmark, says that his understanding was that the organization is separate from the church, and that he thought Swan’s program deserved funding.
The state does fund social service organizations tied to religious organizations; Catholic Charities, for example, performs a wide variety of services with state aid. Those organizations typically maintain a clear delineation between their religious and nonprofit services.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office is looking into whether the organization should have registered with its office as a charity.
