Not All Wishes Granted in Budget Crunch

Some non-profits, service recipients left in the lurch as county commmission passes volunteer panel funding recommendations

The Large Assembly Room of the City County Building was packed with county employees, concerned citizens and members of the media, anxious to hear the financial outlook for local non-profits and government offices as county commission met June 18 to pass the FY 2008-09 budget. As the hours passed and votes were cast, many attendees went home empty-handed and outwardly disappointed in the forecast for services provided by their agencies.

Volunteer citizen panels were formed in 2007 to make recommendations on community grants funding following conflicts of interest discovered in an audit of the county’s community development office. When panelists presented their recommendations to county commission in April, many previously funded agencies found their budgets slashed and sometimes eliminated, with many non-profit employees criticizing the panel process and a lack of diversity among panelists.

Regardless, county commission voted 11-6 June 18 to pass the grant amounts exactly as the five citizen panels recommended, adding nine recommendations from county Mayor Mike Ragsdale.

In the end, 80 of 142 groups received grant funding, although all received less than had been requested. Though disappointing for employees and service recipients of the groups, it wasn’t exactly surprising — the citizen panels distributed only $2 million, but the total requested from non-profits was more than $5 million.

Ragsdale’s additions included $25,000 to WDVX, $5,000 to the Seymour Volunteer Fire Department, $20,000 to the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, $7,500 to the Sertoma Center, $25,000 to the African American Appalachian Arts Festival, $5,000 to the Heiskell Volunteer Fire Department, $20,000 to Mother Goose Nurseries, $50,000 to the East Tennessee Television and Film Commission and $25,000 to the Free Clinic of America.

Of those nine, Beck Cultural Center and Seymour Volunteer Fire Department had not applied for grant funding this year. Beck Center also obtained $200,000 in contractual funding from Knox County.

Ragsdale’s decisions were mostly well-received by commissioners, but Commissioner R. Larry Smith says the extra money should have helped pay off the significant county debt. “It was great to give the non-profits the money, but we could have given and given,” he says. “Eventually we’ll have to pay our indebtedness down or it may come to not being able to fund any non-profits.”

The added allocations helped secure a future for the nine organizations targeted by Ragsdale. Helen Short, executive director of East Tennessee Television and Film Commission, spoke at a previous commission meeting and said the group would go out of business without the requested funding from the county. ETTVC obtained $110,000 in county dollars last year, but was slated in the panel recommendations to receive none of the $159,805 it requested this year.

Free Clinic of America provides free medical care for the uninsured and working poor, and Dr. Kim says the agency might have been forced to eliminate a nursing position without county funding. The WDVX grant enables expanded web casts and increased broadband for Blue Plate Special, its popular live music performance and broadcast. African American Appalachian Arts’ Kuumba Festival will move forward because of its grant and Sertoma Center, which provides several services for people with physical and mental disabilities, will be able to continue operating.    

Though these groups can continue services, those with no county funding are facing tough decisions and potentially grim futures.

One unfunded organization, The Knoxville Academy of Medicine, links volunteering physicians with uninsured patients and provides free health care. More than 800 area physicians and specialists regularly treat patients pro bono; 9,000 individuals were treated in the last two years. The group received funding from Knox County in 2007 and 2008, and had requested $150,000 this fiscal year.