From AJC.com
(Atlanta, GA) “Rather than send back more than $30 million in unspent federal aid, Atlanta officials have pushed through more than 50 last-minute deals with service agencies who hope to spend like crazy before the program expires Dec. 31.”
[...]
“The nonprofit groups that provide services for years have struggled to spend their grants. The program requires the groups to provide the service up front and then wait months for reimbursement. And many of the small groups simply haven’t had the finances to do that.
That has kept the money sitting at City Hall when it should have been providing services on the street.
The money in question is part of the city’s $53 million Renewal Community, a successor to the federal Empowerment Zone designation the city was given about 15 years ago. That program was supposed to breathe life into long-neglected urban communities, the kind that suffered from disinvestment, crime, drugs and falling property values.
After six years, Harper’s group had used about $7 million for administration and $7.5 million for services, and officials expected to be able to spend at least another $8 million or more before year’s end. That left Atlanta looking at the very real possibility of returning as much as $30 million in federal aid before Dec. 31.”
I wonder how many other cities across the fruited plain had the money to spend, but sat on it because of their own internal red tape?
This mad rush to spend up money before the Feds take it away is just sickening.
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