Posted on 02/04/2023 9:54:45 AM PST by buckalfa
Senators are trailing the Justice administration’s transfer of the remaining $28 million in federal covid relief dollars to a fund controlled by the Governor’s Office, which then put millions of dollars from that transfer toward construction of Marshall University’s new baseball field.
“Isn’t that money laundering?” asked Senator Randy Smith, R-Tucker
No, responded Berkeley Bentley, general counsel for the Governor’s Office.
Bentley was testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, which wanted to know more about the transfer’s reasoning and validity.
He told senators that the state faced a deadline to spend the remaining $28 million from federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds.
The state incurred that amount in costs for pandemic-related expenses for corrections and homeland security, he said. Then the state reimbursed its own expenses by using the federal covid money.
Facing the deadline, Bentley told senators, the administration found it simplest to transfer the reimbursed money into the Governor’s Office Gifts, Grants and Donations Fund.
“Once allocated, those CARES-eligible expenses — the $28.3 million — became state dollars, for lack of a better word,” Bentley said. “We spent the CARES money on CARES-eligible purposes, reimbursing the state. That becomes subject to state law, not the federal CARES requirements.”
Among that fund’s distributions following the transfer to the governor’s fund was $10 million to Marshall University to support construction of a new baseball stadium.
Senators seemed to think that money trail had a dogleg.
Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr repeatedly asked if the state’s expenses were for corrections then why didn’t the reimbursement go to corrections.
“You’re telling me that you can reimburse, related to any expense the state would have with covid, that the governor can move that money anywhere it wants and say it’s covid-related?” asked Tarr, R-Putnam.
Noting that corrections has staffing shortages that have resulted in a separate, ongoing state of emergency, Tarr went farther.
“Then the governor’s staff claimed that covid-related expenses came from corrections for those monies that we appropriated to them in that state of emergency, and when you transferred the last $28 million — which doesn’t come close to covering any of those corrections expenses, the governor decides to put it into a discretionary account and start putting into astroturf on baseball fields,” Tarr said.
“I want to ask you what part of that is appropriate.”
Bentley replied, “When the state reimburses itself, there is no direction under federal or state law that directs where that money goes.”
Tarr followed up. “You didn’t reimburse those expenses that came from corrections. You reimbursed it to the governor’s discretionary account. And that money — some of it’s still sitting there, much of it’s not — went to a baseball field and other expenses. Is that accurate?”
Bentley: “So far, those are the transfers that I’m aware of out of the fund after the transfer was made.”
Tarr: “There was no transfer to corrections whatsoever out of that money?”
Bentley: “There has been no transfer to corrections for that.”
The Senate Finance Committee also got testimony from state Auditor J.B. McCuskey, whose office had questioned the transfer to the governor’s discretionary fund.
“Was that a usual request that you would have seen coming from the executive?” Tarr asked.
“No,” McCuskey said.
The auditor later provided more context. “We see our role in this process as ensuring that all of these things are done legally and properly, but I think more importantly is ensuring there’s a record of what happened so that people in rooms like this can know what happened later. So we asked for a legal and accounting opinion.”
The Governor’s Office referenced opinions by outside counsel as well as a nationally-known accounting firm. McCuskey noted that at the time of the transfer to the governor’s discretionary fund, the auditor’s staff would have had no way of knowing the final transfer to the baseball project was ahead.
McCuskey suggested a more logical transfer might have been to accounts under the authority of corrections.
Later in the hearing, senators asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy about the funding transfer. Sandy had described receiving about $52 million from CARES, including $41 million for medical expenses.
Tarr wanted to know how corrections could have gotten that money back while the $28 million went elsewhere. “How is the additional $28 million related to other expenses?”
Sandy didn’t know right off hand. “I cannot answer that, sir,” Sandy replied. “I can give you that answer, but I cannot today.”
Well into the day’s testimony, Senator Smith was still trying to make it all make sense. “I’m trying to wrap my head around how a baseball field would fall under covid funds,” he said. “How, legally, could we use covid money for a baseball facility?”
Jimmy justice…. Trumps golf buddy.. or I guess Golf Billionaire.
Running the corruptocracy just like we knew he would.
Why the mystery? This is where most government spending is supposed to go.
I had run ins with Justice 25 years ago over self insured hospital insurance claims for his employees. The third party administrator would approve the claims but Justice’s Bluestone group would never fund the checks. His money was his money, your money was his money.
“He told senators that the state faced a deadline to spend the remaining $28 million from federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds.”
“The money has to be spent by Sept. 30th or we lose it. So just buy anything.”
“.... faced a deadline to spend the remaining $28 million from federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief ...”
I understand that untold billions of Federal taxpayer monies are wasted with the same “deadline” with no conditions reasoning, every year. Money not spent by deadline should be returned to the Treasury as well as money mistakenly appropriated. There is too much slush money floating around among these departments and agencies. Return it!!!
Our feral government used our stolen taxpayer money to bribe local governments to torment us.
"Senators ask how $28 million in covid money went first to governor’s fund and then to baseball project[WV]"
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
If this were a better world, lots of state and federal lawmakers and bureaucrats would be going home permanently under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment imo, for open rebellion against the federal government's constitutionally limited powers, many post-17th Amendment (17A) ratification lawmakers scandalously helping to pass CV19 and irresponsible omnibus spending bills that they have probaly not thoroughly read imo.
"14th Amendment, Section 3: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof [emphases added]. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
After all, peacetime military maintenance aside, how many 4,155 page omnibus spending bills does it take to run the US Mail Service, one of the very few powers that the states have actually given to Congress to dictate domestic policy?
"Article I, Section 8, Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;"
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”Simply this, that the care of the property, the liberty, and the life of the citizen, under the solemn sanction of an oath imposed by your Constitution, is in the States and not in the federal government [emphases added]. I have sought to effect no change in that respect in the Constitution of the country.” —John Bingham, Congressional. Globe. 1866, page 1292 (see top half of third column)
"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]." —United States v. Butler, 1936.
Pelosi: "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." (non-FR; 6 sec.)
“Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves [emphasis added]. It seems to be the law of our general nature.” - Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Edward Carrington January 16, 1787)
The inevitable remedy for ongoing, post-17A ratification corrupt political party treason (imo)...
All MAGA patriots need to wake up their RINO federal and state lawmakers by making the following clear to them.
If they don’t publicly support either a resolution, or a Constitutional Convention, to effectively "secede" ALL the states from the unconstitutionally big federal government by amending the Constitution to repeal the 16th (direct taxes) and 17th (popular voting for federal senators) Amendments (16&17A), doing so before the primary elections in 2024, that YOU will primary them.
If the proposed amendment was limited strictly to repealing 16&17A, relatively little or ideally no discussion would be needed before ratification of the amendment imo.
With 16&17A out of the way, my hope is that Trump 47 becomes the FIRST president of a truly constitutionally limited power federal government.
In the meanwhile, I'm not holding my breath for significant MAGA legislation to appear in the first 100 days of new term for what may still prove to be another RINO-controlled House.
Trump will hopefully do another round of primarying RINOs for 2024 elections.
You can bet of lot of the Covid money found its way into communist democrat activist groups.
Thank you. Your words and research bring clarity to the issues that most of us see but cannot express as coherent thought.
Back during one of the pre-Covid Homeland Security Spend-a-Thons, my WV blood red county couldn't make up its mind what to spend its Fed $$$ on and time was running short before the payout window shut. They decided to spend it on ballistic face masks for the Sheriff's dept. Some on the county commission were not happy about this as there would still be $10,000 unused from the kitty. "Not to worry" said others, "we can always find something to spend $10,000 on."
(prolly not an exact quote, but pretty damned close)
Late 79/80 I worked in Charleston for the insurance company that handled the claims for all state employees. It was common practice to process the claim, create the check and hold payment for several months. All files at the time were paper. An employee would get a delinquent notice and we would grab their case folder from the shelf call the provider with check number, date processed and release date. I would have hated to be the one to create the dbase.
I was on the other end at a small rural hospital in the Allegheny Highlands. We would receive paid claim lists from PEIA and WV DPA,but once went 18 months without a check around 1989-90.Fun times trying to met payroll and pay vendors.
I have family in the WV\Va coal mining engineering services business. (I think they are all retired now!) They told me if they had work to perform at a Justice owned mine their engineers were told to get the money up front. If the engineers didn’t do that, they would never be paid for the work.
Nearly 10 years later and and it got worse? Yikes.
Ask Nancy P….she knows how because she made sure the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts got $25 mil.
Senators ask how $28 million in covid money went first to governor’s fund and then to baseball project[WV]
/
How ?
Like a hot knife through butter.
Gov Gavin Newsom stole $1.6 billion in April 2020.
He did not get permission from the state legislatures to use the money. He said it was for buying face masks that were to be bought from a Chines BUS company. The same company that when was mayor of San Francisco bought electric buses from. Those buses need constant repair and cannot get up the hills in the city. No masks were ever bought. The money was his buy in for a president run.
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