A state commission that approves legislators’ grants is closely reviewing scholarship grants after a legislator pleaded guilty to paying gambling debts with grants disguised as scholarship money.

At a meeting Wednesday, the Executive Commission for Community Service Grants wouldn’t approve legislators’ grants for scholarship money to be sent to foundations associated with two-year or four-year colleges.

State Treasurer Kay Ivey, a member of the commission, said the grants needed to go directly to a college, not a foundation over which the state had no control.

“We need an audit trail,” she said.

The commission, chaired by Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, also notified legislators that their scholarship grants going directly to colleges would not be approved until they submitted the criteria for distributing the scholarships, including who picks the winners.

State Rep. Bryant Melton, D-Tuscaloosa, pleaded guilty last month to theft and money laundering charges. The representative, who lost his office when he pleaded guilty, admitted steering his community service grants to the State Fire College Foundation, which returned much of the money to him disguised as scholarships for his daughter. Melton used it to pay debts, including gambling bills.

So far this fiscal year, the Executive Commission for Community Service Grants has approved more than 2,000 grants for legislators to distribute to education-related projects in their districts, including computers, library books, and drug tests for athletes.

No grants have been distributed because Gov. Bob Riley and Attorney General Troy King have filed a lawsuit over the grant program. They contend it’s unconstitutional because the governor has no role in it.

A Montgomery judge has scheduled a hearing Sept. 19.

The Legislature had appropriated $13.4 million for grants in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The governor has helped hold up distribution by not approving an operating plan for the program, which has kept the money from being put into a state account where checks can be issued.

The Legislature has asked Montgomery County Circuit Judge Truman Hobbs Jr. to order Riley to make the money available.

At Wednesday’s commission meeting, State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said he regretted the legal battle. “There are some mighty good projects,” the commission member said.

Baxley said the amount distributed by legislators to projects in their districts pales next to the millions distributed by the Riley administration through grants from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.

“Pork is pork is pork regardless of where it comes from,” she said.

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Education News, Scholarship. Tags: College, Education News, Grant, Scholarship, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.