Literacy Connections dodges cut
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 8, 2015 1:46 PM
Literacy Connections dodged, at least for another year, the Wayne County budget ax. But it did not escape completely unscathed.
As a condition of agreeing to fund $101,232 for fiscal year 2015-16, Wayne County commissioners instructed County Manager George Wood to work with the agency on the language of a contract prohibiting the use of county money to provide services for illegal aliens.
Wood has met with Literacy Connections officials and expects to have the wording for a proposed contract this week.
Wood and some commissioners argue that taxpayers' money should not be used to provide services for people who are in the country illegally.
Also, a literacy program is already available through Wayne Community College that is supported by tax dollars, Commissioner Joe Daughtery said.
"I think there is a concept that my students were not taxpayers," Pat Yates, director of the free adult literacy program, told commissioners at their June 2 budget public hearing. "That is not true. Of 161 students served over the first three months of the year only four were unable to provide a Social Security number."
AmeriCorps and United Way of Wayne County provide a total of $124,000 annually for four positions -- three teachers and a financial educator -- and operating funds of $35,000.
Literacy Connections must comply with both agencies' nondiscriminatory policies to receive funding, she said.
She voiced concerns that the board's insistence for a policy limiting services could be deemed discriminatory, thereby endangering funding from organizations such as United Way and AmeriCorps.
The Literacy Connections board offered a counterproposal that it would not use county funds to provide service to anyone who is not a legal resident of the county, but will still have an open-door policy.
"Effective July 2015, Literacy Connections clients will be required to provide a Social Security or tax ID number," she said. "We request that now. But we will require it before services are provided at the time of registration to document their citizenship status."
The agency also will provide a report by student identification number the affirmation of a Social Security or tax identification number, race, citizenship status, employer, employment status and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base affiliation, she said.
Mrs. Yates said she did not think that would be discriminating since the agency would still have an open-door policy.
But the only way to test it would be to deny services to someone and then wait to see if a lawsuit is filed, she said.
Commissioners, however, were not satisfied with the proposal and told Wood to meet with Literacy Connections officials on the wording.
Mrs. Yates was asked if the agency used the E-Verify program. It does not, she said. There is no guarantee that the information in that program is accurate, she said.
That response seemed to rile Chairman Wayne Aycock who said the county used it and Literacy Connections could, too.
Aycock said he was going to be the "bad guy" and that if the board was going to cut WATCH (Wayne Action Teams for Community Health), it should be fair and cut Literacy Connections, which had also been discussed during the public hearing.
"We can offset some of what we are about to give to WATCH by cutting it off Literacy Connections," he said.
Aycock said that was his opinion, but he did not make a motion.
Commissioner Ray Mayo said he disagreed because originally WATCH was not going to be funded at all while Literacy Connections was.
"We are a part of a community," Mayo said. "We should be a part of the health care, overall health care of our citizens, and we should also be a part of literacy training for our citizens.
"The ones (nonprofits) we have been talking about today are probably the top nonprofits that we are dealing with. For example, should we not make a motion to cut the Arts Council budget down to zero? Which is more important?"
"I don't have a problem with that one either," Aycock said.
But again, he did not make a motion to cut the Arts Council budget.
Mayo asked if health care of county citizens and whether they can speak English were not more important issues.
"At some point in time, we as elected officials, what looks good on paper does not necessarily look good (in practice)," Mayo said. "At some point in time we may need to stop looking at saving pennies and look at the total picture. We are called a step higher than saving money. I have learned since I have been a commissioner everybody says if you want to know what is going on, follow the money.
"I say following the money should be the least priority. We need to follow the people, and we need to do what is right for the people, the majority of the time. Sometimes it doesn't look as good when you implement as it does on paper."
Mayo said he that in this case commissioners needed to be looking at people's lives and not at the pennies or dollars that they might save by cutting the program.
Aycock said no one on the board was questioning the good works of the nonprofit programs. But as elected officials, commissioners have a responsibility to spend tax dollars as responsibly as possible, he said.
"I think that we as commissioners need to be very careful that we don't put this program in jeopardy because we are asking for what you might say are unreal things," Commissioner John Bell said. "If the people live here in Wayne County, we ought to want them to read and write and do arithmetic."
Commissioners need to "chill out" and let Mrs. Yates do her job and not put so many strings on the program, he added.