Government and Politics Watch

October 07, 2008

Foundation Creates Web Site to Educate Voters on Issues

To educate voters and lawmakers during the election season, the Carnegie Corporation of New York has created an Internet clearinghouse for research on the most pressing issues facing America today, including the economy, health care, national security, and foreign policy.

The nonpartisan effort — Advice for the President — does not recommend ideas or say how the presidential candidates stand on a specific issue, but leads visitors to policy information provided by think tanks, universities, and newspapers of different political persuasions.

“How can the role of ideas continue to play an important role in our civic life?” asks Vartan Gregorian, Carnegie’s president, on the Web site. “This site is one attempt to respond to that question. We offer it as a public service and as a celebration of those who work in the spirit of our forefathers to ensure our nation is renewed, energetic, and committed to finding solutions to the problems that face our nation and the world.”

For more on how the presidential candidates stand on issues important to the nonprofit world, please check out the Chronicle‘s Campaign 2008 special report.

— Ian Wilhelm

October 06, 2008

Company Offers Donation Linked to Debate

To raise concerns about global hunger, a restaurant chain is trying to influence the presidential debate tomorrow night at Belmont University, in Nashville.

The KFC Corporation, in Louisville, Ky., makers of Kentucky fried chicken, says it will donate $20,000 to the United Nations World Food Programme if a participant at the town hall-style meeting “mentions” hunger issues.

“To spur a serious conversation on world hunger, KFC is offering to donate $20,000 to world hunger-relief efforts if anyone mentions the pressing issue during Tuesday’s nationally televised presidential debate,” the company says in a press statement.

To spur interest in local residents who may be invited to the debate, the company has produced a 30-second television ad for the “donation challenge.” It began appearing on local Tennessee television stations today.

— Ian Wilhelm

October 03, 2008

Foreign Aid Pledge Under Scrutiny

Due to the bailout of financial institutions, Sen. Barack Obama may not be able to increase foreign aid from $25-billion to $50-billion by 2012 if he is elected president, said Mr. Obama’s running mate Sen. Joe Biden during last night’s vice-presidential debate.

“The one thing we might have to slow down is a commitment we made to double foreign assistance. We’ll probably have to slow that down,” Mr. Biden said.

The decision will probably concern antipoverty groups that have sought for overseas aid to be on both presidential candidates’ agendas.

During the debate last night, Republican John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, would not identify what policy proposals would be jeopardized by the current financial problems.

Mr. McCain has pledged to support foreign aid, but he has not promised to double it, as Mr. Obama has.

— Ian Wilhelm

October 02, 2008

Senate Pass Charity Tax Provisions Along With Wall Street Bailout

The U.S. Senate attached a package of tax benefits to legislation to rescue the troubled financial sector, increasing the odds that the expired charity tax incentives could be renewed this year.

The package added to the bailout bill would extend for two years a measure allowing donors age 70 1/2 or older to transfer up to $100,000 to charity from their individual retirement accounts each year without paying income taxes on the money.

The Senate-passed legislation would renew the provision retroactive to January 1, 2008, and extend it to the end of 2009.

Additional provisions in the Senate legislation would renew and extend other breaks related to charitable giving, including special deductions that businesses may take for gifts of food and donations of books and computers to schools.

The legislation also creates tax incentives for charitable giving to help victims of summer storms, tornadoes, and floods in the Midwest.

People who use their cars and other vehicles to provide disaster relief in the Midwest would be able to deduct 41 cents per mile — 70 percent of the current business mileage rate — through the end of 2008. The rates now are 14 cents per mile for charitable activities and 58.5 cents for business activities.

Volunteers in the Midwest could also exclude from their income any reimbursements from charities for the use of their vehicles, up to the amount of the standard business rate, through the end of 2008.

Earlier this week, the tax-breaks legislation appeared to be in limbo, as the Senate and the House of Representatives had passed similar but not identical versions of bills to renew the benefits. The two chambers had differed chiefly over how the benefits would be paid for.

The addition of the tax benefits is expected to make the rescue bill more appealing to House Republicans, two-thirds of whom voted against the bailout on Monday. But the move could alienate conservative, “Blue Dog” Democrats in the House who voted for the original bill. The “Blue Dogs” oppose extending the tax credits unless they are paid for with spending cuts or tax increases.

The House recessed on Monday for the Jewish New Year, but returned today to take up a bailout bill.

— Kelly Field and Grant Williams

October 01, 2008

IRS Releases Details on College Probe

The Internal Revenue Service today released details of a 42-page questionnaire it is sending to roughly 400 colleges to collect information on their executive compensation, endowments, and outside business income.

Among other things, the questionnaire examines how a range of small, medium, and large institutions report income and losses on business activies that may be taxable and how they manage and spend their endowments.

The agency also will examine, in-depth, how colleges pay their presidents and other top executives, including perks such as first-class travel, personal use of a credit card and other services, such as housekeeping and lawn maintenance.

Like a similar questionnaire the IRS required of some tax-exempt hospitals, the reports for individual colleges will not be made public. The agency will compile a summary of its findings and possibly audit some institutions to ensure that they are following existing tax laws.

— Eric Kelderman

Suggestions for the Next President

What should the next U.S. president do on his first day in office? Make a pledge to eradicate nuclear weapons? Build more bike lanes? Create a national sales tax and eliminate all other federal taxes?

A Web site, On Day One, is asking Americans to make their suggestions for what the next resident of the White House should commit to. The Internet project is run by the Better World Fund, an advocacy group in Washington that seeks to improve U.S. relations with the United Nations.

Aside from ideas from everyday people, the Web site includes video interviews with politicians and other well-known figures. Walter Mondale, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1984, says that the next president on his first day should promise to build better relations with other nations, while Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat from Washington, wants the new commander-in-chief to pull troops out of Iraq.

What do you think the next president should do on his first day?

— Ian Wilhelm

Action Urged Against Politicking Pastors

A group advocating separation of church and state has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against six churches it says flagrantly violated federal laws that prohibit clergy members from endorsing political candidates.

The six churches were participants in the so-called Pulpit Freedom Sunday, organized and promoted by the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit legal support group intent on challenging the federal ban on political endorsements by clergy members.

The alliance has promised to provide legal support for the churches that face legal action.

In all, ADF says 31 churches participated in the sermon challenge, and two more are planning to do so soon. The alliance argues that the federal rules violate the First Amendment right to free speech.

“Pastors have a right to speak about Biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment. No one should be able to use the government to intimidate pastors into giving up their constitutional rights,” said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the organization, in a press release.

Opponents argue that the issue is not about free speech, but over the use of tax-exempt dollars to promote a partisan political agenda.

“When five of the six pastors choose to endorse John McCain, it’s hard not to see the ADF scheme as partisan in character,” said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a written statement.

— Eric Kelderman

September 30, 2008

Advocacy Group Under Fire for DVD

The Clarion Fund, an advocacy group with a mission “to educate Americans about issues of national security,” has been accused of violating rules that prohibit nonprofit organizations from direct partisan political activity.

On its Web site, the fund says it is a nonpartisan organization.

The controversy erupted when the fund distributed millions of copies of a DVD about Muslim terrorists titled, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.”

The move prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in Washington, to file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission that says the DVD was meant to benefit Sen. John McCain’s election efforts.

Gregory Ross, a spokesman for the Clarion Fund, told The Chronicle that the organization has not been contacted by the elections commission and denies any wrongdoing. “We have maintained to the letter of the law what we can and can not do as a nonprofit,” he said.

— Ian Wilhelm

September 29, 2008

Charity Tax Breaks Stall in Congress

Leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have announced they will adjourn without reconciling a set of tax breaks, including several measures that would affect charitable giving, with a bill passed earlier this month by the Senate.

After several months of difficult negotiations, the Senate early last week passed its version of legislation that would renew a variety of tax breaks, such as allowing older donors to get a tax break when they give charities money from their individual retirement accounts.

Until December 31 of last year, donors age 70 1/2 or older were able to transfer up to $100,000 to charity from their individual retirement accounts each year without paying income taxes on the money. The Senate’s legislation would renew the provision retroactive to January 1, 2008, and extend it to the end of 2009.

The legislation also has provisions that would create tax incentives for charitable giving to help victims of summer storms, tornadoes, and floods in the Midwest.

But the House passed differing versions of those measures.

The White House had threatened to veto the House’s version of the tax cuts.

— Eric Kelderman

September 23, 2008

Senate Passes Bill to Extend Charity Tax Breaks

By a vote of 93 to 2, the Senate has passed legislation that would renew and extend several tax provisions affecting charitable giving.

One key provision would allow older donors to get a tax break when they give charities money from their individual retirement accounts.

The House of Representatives now will review the Senate legislation. In May, the House passed its own bill that would renew and extend tax provisions, including the one for IRAs. The Senate and House differ over how the legislation should be paid for and would have to agree before Congress could pass final legislation.

The Senate-passed legislation would renew the provision retroactive to January 1, 2008, and extend it to the end of 2009.

The legislation also has provisions that would create tax incentives for charitable giving to help victims of summer storms, tornadoes, and floods in the Midwest.

Volunteers in the Midwest could also exclude from their income reimbursements from charities for the use of their vehicles up to the amount of the standard business rate through the end of 2008.

— Grant Williams