State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement.
Special agents from the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor have delivered a civil demand to Mary Washington, Noxubee County Chancery Clerk. The amount of the demand is $38,555.78 and includes interest and investigative costs.
Washington donated nearly $20,000 in public funds that were intended for office expenses to multiple local churches. The illegal charitable donations took place from January 2010 to December 2012.
State Auditor Shad White said: "It should go without saying that you can't use taxpayers' money to pay your tithe to your church. Elected officials have to use common sense. If you or an organization you belong to is benefitting from your position in the government, and the taxpayers are paying for it, odds are you are doing something wrong. We're going to continue to make sure money like this is repaid to the taxpayers and officials are held responsible."
19 comments:
Where are the charges? Sheesh, at least it should be referred to the attorney general or perhaps a federal law enforcement entity about the fraud? Why doesn't anyone ever go to jail? Unreal.
So this happened 6-8 years ago. What the hell was the previous auditor doing?
Another question: Did Ms. Washington deduct said charitable donations from her income for those tax years? If so, an IRS audit is in order.
Yessir! Good job, but now take a peak at Hinds County... ;))
Not sure where he gets the 'tithing' notion. Very simply, the woman is paying off church congregations for their votes to keep her in office. And she's doing it with public funds. Very creative.
It's easy to be a Christian with other people's money.
To get the black vote in the Mississippi Delta, candidates regularly speak at church services. It is also a custom that the speaking candidate "contribute" quite liberally when the collection plate comes around. Call this what you may, but this is the equivalent of vote buying. Maybe this helps explain why the amount in dispute is substantial.
Yet another "elected" public official that obviously had no training, common sense or apparent business being put into public service. Were all of these church's A.M.E. ?
This matches our legislators introducing local and private bills that allow cities and counties to give taxpayer dollars to various organizations including the Junior Auxiliary, various museums, Head Start, and the list goes on. well sure, the Noxubee Chancery clerk needs tose church folks votes. But the legislature is no better.
If you think that money went to (multiple) churches, I have some oceanfront property in Arkansas I would like to show you. Check her closet if you want to see where the money went.
"Da Buildin' Fund".
..and I'm sure the IRS and DOR will perform full audits of her tax returns to make sure the deductions are disallowed and the proper income taxes are levied and any unaccounted for income is seized, right? Back in the day I worked a bunch of cases where there was undeclared income (in the millions) and the DOR (tax commission back then), was like... meh. The IRS ripped them a new asshole, but the state didn't seem interested at all.
But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” 2 Samuel 24:24
The only way they can conclude that the money went directly to the church is to have a copy of a cancelled check endorsed by the church. Otherwise, she would have had to have cashed a check and put the money in the collection plate, which represents theft.
I've never been able to discover this information but does anyone know if county clerks and/or tax collectors get a piece of the "action" on top of their salary? By action I mean a percentage of the fees they collect.
Did he write this press release? It is horribly written. What did he learn at all of them schools?
@ 7:11 - take a peek at a dictionary.
Visit each of those churches and see what the preacher is driving.
You can bet not one of them is driving a 2008 Toyota (or equivalent).
jussayin
if you want to see what went down why not FOIA the Chancery Clerks fee journal... it tells all... just sayin... (while you are at it i'd grab more than just 2010-2012 - cause we all know it didnt start nor stop here)
i have a strong suspicion that you will find that Ms. Washington did more than give money to the church...
is it me or is it not ironic that Ms. Washington is still the Chancery Clerk when she committed this "illegal" act...
Neshoba County employees had to take lump sum payouts of their retirement to pay the county off... I wonder if anyone will be forcing Ms. Washington to give up her retirement.
I don't know if it can be found now, but around 20-25 years ago, the state auditors office basically gave up on Noxubee county...there were some news articles about trying to audit some of the county offices, and the records were so bad that almost nothing could be determined..one office responsible for court fines had thousands of dollars of unpaid tickets stuffed in file cabinets, over 5k dollars of uncashed checks, and 1000s in cash stashed in every nook and cranny...As I can remember, no one was held accountable because the lack of records prevented any accounting...I think a larger city newspaper may have picked the series of articles from the local paper..the same officials continued to get elected...Noxubee like many others in MS have a long history of being untouchable.
Post a Comment