State bureaucrats would not be permitted to divert bond funds from one project to another without first getting approval from the General Assembly under legislation filed Wednesday.
Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is championing the bill after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday that more than $4 million in bond money originally approved for a reservoir was “redirected” to two of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s pet projects in 2010.
A state audit found that $4 million went toward the purchase of Oaky Woods — a giant forested tract adjacent to property that Perdue owns in Houston County. Another $375,000 paid to finish the Go Fish Education Center just down the road from Perdue’s hometown, Bonaire.
Those were not the only instances of the state’s borrowing money for one purpose and then spending it on something else. In the past 10 years, the audit found, state officials diverted about $185 million in bond money to other projects.
Lawmakers said they were surprised to learn bond money had been redirected to Perdue’s projects, but auditors said the movement of money was legal as long as it was approved by the governor’s budget office.
Harbin said it shouldn’t be. His bill, which was co-sponsored by two House committee chairmen, would make it illegal for an agency to “redirect” bond money without a vote of the General Assembly.
“The public should always know if it’s moved,” Harbin said. “What happened recently was a little bit puzzling because I thought it was illegal.
“But it was mostly embarrassing because when you move that kind of public money, the public should be involved and know what’s going on. It should be illegal and that’s what we’re trying to do is make that action illegal so it never happens again.”
Speaker of the House David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said Wednesday evening that although he hasn’t seen Harbin’s bill, he definitely favors giving legislators a say in any diversion of bond money. But the speaker noted that other ideas are under consideration. For example, the AJC reported Sunday that state leaders are considering changing rules so that the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission would have more say when agencies ask to change how bond money is spent. Ralston and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle serve on that commission.
In the Oaky Woods deal, approved one month before the governor’s term ended in 2011, the state paid $2,874 per acre to a group of Houston County developers who had bought the land in 2004 for $1,600 an acre.
The money that was diverted for Oaky Woods and the Go Fish center in Houston County was originally approved for a West Georgia reservoir that was never built after its powerful patron, then-House Speaker Tom Murphy, was defeated for re-election.
In other instances of bond fund diversions, the University System redirected money several times and approved using money to pay for renovations of an Armstrong Atlantic State University fine arts hall despite the fact that Perdue had previously vetoed funds for the project. The DOT shifted $16 million in bond money to pay for the high-occupancy toll, or HOT, lanes in Gwinnett County.
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