A Kingsport, Tenn., legislator's not meeting a filing deadline could cost his constituents $100,000

BRISTOL, Tenn. – A Kingsport state legislator missed a deadline that could cost his constituents $100,000 in grant money.

State Rep. Nathan Vaughn, a Democrat, concedes he missed the deadline to deliver applications on behalf of several Sullivan County organizations for Community Enhancement Grant money.

Vaughn blamed the delay on incomplete applications submitted by the organizations and vows that the $100,000 eventually will reach the Sullivan County organizations in his district – a claim disputed by the program administrator.

"We missed the [Aug. 15] deadline, but no agency in the state has received funds – even if they filed on time," Vaughn said.

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, House Minority Leader Jason Mumpower, and state Rep. Jon Lundberg are Republican legislators who share representation of Sullivan County with Vaughn.

Mumpower said Vaughn "dropped the ball."

"Mr. Ramsey, Mr. Lundberg and myself pooled together on this," Mumpower said. "And I can tell you, I’ve personally reviewed $360,000 worth of checks that already have gone out. The cutoff date was crystal clear. It was boldfaced right there on the application."

The state specifies that the organizations apply directly to the Secretary of State’s Office, which then sends each House representative a list of eligible applicants. The legislators choose the recipients from the list, said Judy McKissack, Secretary of State legal counsel.

"We don’t keep information by district, but we do have 45 applications statewide that have come in late at this time," she said. "And if they’re late, they’re disqualified."

Instead of organizations in Vaughn’s district sending the applications to the state directly, he collected them at his office to review.

Vaughn said volunteer fire departments, several Optimist Clubs, the Kingsport Veterans Memorial, and the Children’s Advocacy Center are among the organizations in his district that applied for grant money.

Fifteen applications were collected, and 12 of those contained incomplete information, he said.

None have been turned in.

Vaughn said he planned to "straighten out" the missed opportunity at the beginning of the next legislative session in January.

"There will likely be a bill introduced in January, authorizing consideration of funding for the organizations that did not meet the deadline," he said. "There will be lots of grantees statewide that won’t be getting their allocations until next year. However, the dollars are still there."

Because several hundred million dollars in surplus tax revenue was realized last spring, the legislature decided to allocate $20 million in the 2007-08 state budget to Community Enhancement Grants.

The money is spread evenly across the state’s legislative districts. Each state representative received $100,000 to distribute to organizations within their district that met certain criteria and applied to the Secretary of State’s office for the grants.

"I have contacted all applicants to make sure we get all the information we need," Vaughn said. "We have that information now, and every single one of my constituents will get their money."

Mumpower said this is the first time the state has used the procedure to allocate the grants and acknowledged the process was "a little difficult."

However, he said he was not in favor of considering late applications.

Meanwhile, Vaughn said Republicans were being "political" and trying to make him look bad.

"I’ve fought hard for my district, and none of my grantees will miss anything," he said. "They will get their allocations."

ggray@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2512

For Your Information

To view the current list of Community Enhancement Grant recipients, including locations and amounts awarded, go to www.state.tn.us/sos/grants/index.htm.