LITTLE ROCK — A missed deadline to apply for federal money could cost 14 Arkansas counties more than $1 million for road projects in national forests around the state.
The state treasurer’s office, which distributed the funds the previous two years under provisions of a 2009 state law, was notified in October that the state had missed a Sept. 30 deadline for requesting the funds through the U.S. Forest Service, Debbie Rogers, chief deputy to Treasurer Martha Shoffner, said Friday.
The treasurer’s office submitted the requisite forms from the counties at that time and was assured they would be accepted, Rogers said. Within the past two weeks, the office was notified that the funding request was rejected, she said.
Rogers said it has never been the responsibility of the treasurer’s office to submit forms for the counties requesting the federal funds. She said she was not sure what changed.
“I don’t feel like it is our error because historically the election process has been submitted by the Department of Education. It was not communicated that they were not doing that for the 2011 deadline,” she said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Education Department spokesman Seth Blomeley declined to discuss the details of the mix-up, but in a prepared statement the department said historically it has been the treasurer’s office that provided education officials a packet of information regarding notification of the election process for counties eligible for the funds.
The statement said the department did not receive notification from Shoffner’s office or the Forest Service regarding the 2011 deadline. Jeff Sikes, legislative director for the Association of Arkansas Counties, said the organization has enlisted help from Arkansas’ congressional delegation in appealing to the Forest Service to reconsider.
“We hold out hope that we might get it. Our whole delegation is behind us on it,” Sikes said. “We’re making the argument that even though this election form didn’t get filed until Oct. 20, we have established a course of dealings with them that we substantially complied with the law.”
Sikes explained that the federal funding is split into three spending categories. Counties traditionally have elected to put 85 percent into road improvements and have elected — on forms submitted to the Forest Service — how much to allocate to other spending categories.
A statewide resources advisory panel oversees distribution of the funds, he said.
Sikes said it was his understanding that a longtime Education Department employee who handled the paperwork for the program retired and the responsibility for getting the election forms to the counties fell through the cracks. He would not say who ultimately was at fault for jeopardizing the federal funding for the counties.
“It just wound up being an unfortunate occurrence where you lost some institutional memory and (the treasurer’s office) didn’t recognize what their responsibility was in regard to the forms,” he said.
Rogers said the treasurer’s office would take responsibility for future county election reports and would put policies and procedures in place for the process.