STORY:
Washington State Lacking Millennium Funding

Money going to pay staff rather than funding celebrations and scholarships

A lack of sponsorships has Washington State's millennium committee using up its funding for millennium activities to pay its staff. Organizers say the lack of sponsorship money is to blame. According to the Tacoma News Tribune, the Spirit of 2000 is spending two-thirds of its state allocated funding of $250,000 to pay for staffing while cutting money that would have gone to community millennium celebrations and scholarships.

The executive director of the committee, Bill Sears tells the Tribune that money from the private sector hasn't materialized. Sears was an early promoter of a state millennium committee to assist smaller communities celebrate the Year 2000.

Because funding for the committee came so late, millennium organizers have been slow to generate events. The calendar is also throwing in an added complication. Many of the events will take place on or around New Year's Eve, but the formal decision to fund the projects can't come until spring making planning difficult.

According to press reports, the committee has little to show for its efforts outside of a countdown clock along Interstate 5 in Seattle. The committee wants to award $1,000 scholarships to students who write winning essays or volunteer to a worthwhile cause. Plans also call for a mass citizenship swearing-in ceremony on New Year's Eve and a time capsule in Leavenworth.

DATE: 08/03/99

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