Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The new Bright Futures Missouri- a dodge to keep tax money rolling in?

For the past couple of years, Bright Futures USA has only been kept afloat by Missouri taxpayers, thanks to the $150,000 that has been appropriated for the organization each of the past two years.

With criticism mounting against the national not-for-profit organization and its use of taxpayer money while it is attempting to expand into other states, Rep. Charlie Davis, R-Webb City announced recently on KZRG that the state legislature was going to look into how BFUSA has been using taxpayer money.

In an apparent move to placate legislators and to answer the criticism, a request has been filed with the Missouri Secretary of State's office to register the name Bright Futures Missouri.

The request was filed September 17 by Joplin attorney Bo Lee, who serves on the BFUSA Board and is signed by BFUSA Chairman Steve Patterson, with that signature dated September 9, the same day the Turner Report featured a lengthy post on why is was time to shut down Bright Futures USA.

It certainly would not be a stretch to assume that legislators are going to be told (or have already been told) that money would go strictly to Bright Futures Missouri and enable the organization to continue to live off the state's taxpayers.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

To whom is this group accountable?

Anonymous said...

Themselves

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't be the first time BFUSA has gone out of its way to fool taxpayers and state officials. The grant money they received this year was originally going to be distributed to the Joplin School district because the state education dept which distributed the funds said it could only be distributed to a school district, not a private organization. This occurred at the same time as the new school board was elected this spring. BFUSA board was worried the new board would not turn over the money, and my guess is the new school board wasn't even made aware by CJ that the school had received the letter from the state. CJ kept it secret and then they worked with Webb City officials to make that school their fiscal partner to receive the funds and turn it over to Bright Futures. It's always been my feeling that if you are doing things honestly there are no reason to keep secrets

Anonymous said...

Another way for them to deceive Missouri taxpayers.... crooks. When will people wake up? Do we really need a BF Missouri now? Is this just another way to fleece donors? Stinks of corruption.

Anonymous said...

So the state of Missouri is allocating $150,000 a tear of taxpayer money for Bright Futures USA and how does this benefit Missouri kids? How does changing the name to Bright Futures Missouri change any of the funding purpose? You reported that the director is paid $85,000 a year so there's the money trail of how funds are being spent fictitiously . Non-profit jobs should not be lucrative and this organization isn't stable enough to be paying that kind of money. Change the name but it changes nothing. They're still going to charge Missouri schools to become a chapter. How hard can it be to add a town name to the logo? My daughter's school has Watch Dog DAD and there's no extravagant fee for schools and it's not rocket science to figure out the program model. How about using the taxpayer funds to implement your program so schools don't have to pay for the use of the name.

Anonymous said...

"There's an old saying in Joplin," he began.

A series of awkward pauses followed. "I know it's in Missouri, probably in Joplin that says, 'Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again!'"