"This is a continuing frustration to us, " said Williams of the comptroller's office. "We see every day legitimate government needs that are going unmet because of a tight budget process."

The new House appropriations chairman, Key West Democrat Saunders, said he will seek hearings next session for all projects not requested by an agency.

"In the past, we've put things in the budget that I think we would have a hard time defending, " Saunders said. "The bad news is we're in a budget crunch. The good news is people are going to be willing to look at different ways of doing things."

Rojas agreed. He said the proper way to get a project funded would be to go to the agency, suggest a program, have the agency determine if it is needed and then submit it to a legislative committee for analysis.

"That's the way it should be done, " he said.

It isn't done that way now.

Sometimes, grants are inserted into the budget by legislators as amendments on the floor. That's the smart way, Rojas said, because "everyone's tired, and no one's looking."

In 1989, most special projects for the first time were listed in the budget as individual line items.

But delineating the items didn't do much to explain how the money was supposed to be spent.

Take the case of the money that went to the Ladies Professional Golf Association. The money was appropriated in the Commerce Department's budget. Here's how the line item read:

"Funds in Specific Appropriation 2152A are included for economic development projects in the amounts indicated. These funds may be advanced in part or in total.

" . . . Amateur Athletic Facilities . . . $1,000,000."

Secretary of Commerce Bobby Brantley, also the lieutenant governor, wrote the governor's office for clarification on that and nine other items: "The 1989-90 General Appropriations Act placed several items in the Department's budget without specifying to whom the funds are to be paid or the exact public purpose of the funds. We are receiving requests for these funds and are unable to determine the appropriate recipients."

By law, the department could look to the work papers for guidance, seek clarification from the chairmen of the appropriations committees or put the project out to bid.

Wetherell dashed off a letter to the Commerce Department, explaining who the intended recipient of the money was: the city of Daytona Beach. Several weeks later, Wetherell and Margolis wrote the Comptroller's Office to clarify the item further.

The legislative intent, they said, was to give the money to Daytona Beach so the city could help the LPGA move its headquarters there. The item was originally titled "athletic facilities, " they wrote. "The description of "amateur" athletic facilities was inadvertently added during the Appropriation Conference Committee and should not be considered a restriction."

Said Wetherell: "They screwed up the title."

The Commerce Department gave Daytona Beach the $1 million.

The LPGA got $200,000 for relocation expenses from Texas and $800,000 to buy a 40 percent interest in an office building and surrounding grounds. The state kept no rights to the building.

In another instance, the Auditor General's Office in 1988 criticized the Department of Agriculture when it gave a grant to a county farmer's market. The group receiving the money used it to buy three acres of land without following the state's land- buying policies.

Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner responded, saying the Legislature was to blame. "Each year during the legislative appropriation process it is made quite clear that these are 'local projects' for which the Department acts as a conduit for the funds to be passed through to various government entities."

Often, the "pass-through" means the grant is paid up front in one big check.

"If you're one of these nonprofit organizations, you get a check, put it in your own private bank account and start spending, " said Smith, of the Senate appropriations staff. "One of the things I've been concerned about is the lack of accountability."

Most state agencies say they don't have the staff to monitor or audit the grants. Although state law requires every agency to have an internal auditor, the state has not backed up the auditors with staff.

"We don't apply the same amount of oversight as a regular department program, " said Jack Walsh, Agriculture's bureau chief for budget and accounting. "We just don't have the staff to go around the state doing that."

The Commerce Department has requested money for auditors, but they haven't been funded.

"Traditionally, the agencies up here have known these were political appropriations, " said Rob Lankford, the department's director of administration. "We simply executed contracts and said, 'Here's your money.' "

Two years ago, the Commerce Department started requiring groups that got state grants to submit a written project description and budget before getting the money. HRS, Education and Community Affairs also do this.

They also require the groups to hire an independent auditor and submit the results to the state. But if a grant is appropriated to a city, which passes it on to another group, only the city files the audit.

"Chances are an audit report is not going to address a dime of that money, " Lankford said.

He also said his agency cannot lawfully question the public value of expenditures. "You can say they're throwing money away, but you can't say it's not for a public purpose, " Lankford said.

Even some of the groups getting state money want to see the system changed.

"We have to make government accountable. These are very scant resources we go after, " said Charlotte Gallogly, executive vice president of the World Trade Center, whose affiliated group, the World Trade Institute of the Americas, received $150,000 in a two-year grant.

Gallogly said she would have welcomed a monthly monitoring of the institute's international business training program -- so state officials would have known the money was well spent.

"If you don't monitor, things get exacerbated, " she said. "I think the least they ought to ask for is monthly reports."

The comptroller's office is charged with preauditing state expenditures to make sure the money is used lawfully.

When the money is paid in a lump-sum advance, and the Legislature gives few -- if any -- instructions on how the money should be spent, the comptroller's hands are usually tied.

"When that money is out the door, we don't have any control on it, " Deputy Comptroller Thomas Clemons said.

Last year, for the first time, the House Appropriations Committee required hearings for all new special projects.

"What we tried to do was put a process in place where there was oversight in the front end, " Wetherell said. "What we need to follow up with is an oversight on the back end."

The Herald obtained tapes of the subcommittee meetings. The hearings were not scheduled in advance; legislators or lobbyists made brief presentations when they had time.

Rep. Ron Silver, D-North Miami Beach, for example, pleaded the case for the Motorcycle Grand Prix of Miami. It needed state money, Silver said, to defray the cost of police security.

The race received $125,000.

But the House voted the item out of the budget and allotted the money instead to child care. It was put back in the conference committee -- the panel that hashes out differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget -- and ultimately funded.

The money, however, didn't go for police security. Instead, the city of Miami told Commerce the race would use it to pay for insurance, tents, toilets and installation of bleachers and fences.

The proviso that the money go toward police was not included in the budget.

Legislators put no restrictions on the money for the race nor 20 other economic development projects in the 1990 budget.

Nor did they put restrictions on a $250,000 grant to the International Motor Sports Association in 1989. IMSA wrote to Commerce that it would use some of the money to study and find a site for a racing Hall of Fame in Tampa.

None of the money was spent on the hall of fame. Instead, the association spent it on moving expenses, computers, furniture and a $10,000 catered party.

"It was an open-house type of thing. A lot of people were invited. A lot of people came, " said IMSA comptroller Wayne Coffield.

"It wasn't a lot of money compared to the other things we have around here." HOW IT WORKS

Once the Legislature decides to fund an item, it can be hidden in the budget as part of a larger item but earmarked in the "work papers, " thousands of pages that specify how the Legislature wants the money to be spent.

Approved only by the chairmen of the appropriations committees, the work papers are never voted on by the entire Legislature. Most members don't ever get a chance to review them.

The governor has the right to veto line items in the budget. But items tucked in the work papers are veto-proof.

In 1988, Gov. Martinez vetoed items in the work papers anyway. Legislators sued. The Supreme Court rejected his vetoes, and also ruled that the working papers were not a binding, legal document.

The ruling prompted Martinez to urge agencies not to follow the Legislature's guide. For instance, last year he asked Education Chancellor Charles Reed not to implement a $325,757 appropriation in the work papers that would have created a job for retiring Sen. Curtis Peterson, D-Lakeland.

The Legislature had placed the project within a larger item, which made it impossible for Martinez to veto without also vetoing the entire salary fund for the state university system.

"I hope you will agree with me that this program sets a poor example and its implementation is not based upon sound reasoning for the expenditure of these public funds, " Martinez wrote to Reed. Reed ultimately followed Martinez's recommendation.

Even though the work papers are legally just a guide for agencies, House Speaker T.K. Wetherell said he doubted that many agencies would ignore the Legislature's intent since it also approves their budgets.

"I just think we have to be more diligent about what is in the work papers, " said Rep. Elaine Bloom, Dade delegation chairwoman.

-- LISA GETTER

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