The Longmont Times-Call published the following article of mine in the print edition last Friday.
Voters should oppose Ballot Issue 1B, the “Worthy Cause” tax –no matter how worthy the causes are. The sales tax for Boulder County non-profits is wrong and should end. It’s wrong for the taxpayers forced to “donate.” It’s wrong for a community that benefits from a marketplace of accountable and effective charities. And it’s wrong for the very people these organizations are supposed to help.
The Big Charity lobby for government-funded charities is at it again. They want to use the political process as a fundraising mechanism. This time it’s an article in the Boulder Daily Camera. All but one of the authors and co-signers represent organizations that have received thousands of dollars in tax revenue from the “Worthy Cause” tax they support.
Again they use shallow logic: They regard some non-profits as advancing a good cause (which I do not dispute), therefore it’s OK for government to force everyone to fund it. Something’s missing here. Namely, respect, tolerance and property rights. Who are these people to tell Boulder County Citizens what causes are worthy, and to make it a crime for them not to donate to it?
Supporters of the tax claim that the non-profits couldn’t raise the money without it. But what if, instead of voting for 1B, the majority required to approve it donated their own money?
This year’s Boulder County Budget includes $3.5 million in the “Worthy Cause Fund.” Assuming the same voter turnout as the 2004 election, 1B needs about 80,000 votes to pass. That’s a $43 donation per “Yes” vote. And it’s tax-deductible, so it’s more like $30.
Are we so two-faced in the voting booth? Would a majority vote to force others to donate to charities that they wouldn’t support themselves? Is that the Boulder County you want?
To donate to these charities on your own, I’ve made it easy. Click here. It lists the special interests who are funding the Ballot Issue 1B campaign. As I’ve mentioned, they just happen to be the ones who have received the tax revenue. So for them it’s an investment. (See, “investment” = tax, just as politicians say.) Anyway, the page contains a dozen links to donation pages for these organizations.
THe October 10 post at the Foothills United Way blog states:
A penny helps a single mother get affordable child care, so she can work to support her family.
A penny helps an uninsured or under-insured family get access to the medical care they need.
A penny helps feed a family.
That penny is provided by Worthy Cause 1B – a .05 percent tax that equals one cent on each $20 purchase.
No. That penny is provided by retailers, who get it from their customers. The so-called “Worthy Cause 1B” is a law that makes it a crime for customers not to give this penny. The so-called “Worthy Cause” tax provided government force, a threat, to all those who might choose to give their pennies to charitable organizations of their choosing, rather than to a charity that government officials prefer.
Boulder County Ballot Issue 1B is not about whether the causes are worthy. It’s about using government to force your neighbors to donate to a cause that you deem as “worthy,” which means your neighbors have less money to donate to causes they think are worthy. As I’ve written before, Ballot Issue 1B is intolerant, arrogant, and elitist.
This tax is sponsored by the so-called “Citizens for a Worthy Cause.” These are not just ordinary citizens, but the very same non-profits that stand to benefit from the tax, at the expense of non-profits who refrain from using government to raise money.
Update to: “Worthy Cause Tax”: It’s not Your Penny to Give.
In a letter published in the Boulder Daily Camera, Rich Miller writes:
Citizens for a Worthy Cause sent out a glossy mailing this past week, encouraging voters to approve Boulder County 1B. Issue 1B will continue an existing sales tax and allow county commissioners to distribute our tax dollars to the charities of their choice. … And who are these Citizens for a Worthy Cause? No individual citizens contributed, only non-profits who stand to benefit from 1B at our expense.
Rich Miller has made an excellent insight. (Ralph Shnelvar has also noticed.)
Ten of the fifteen organizations that donated to Citizens for a Worthy Cause have received revenue from this sales tax. These ten organizations have donated almost $27,000 to extend the tax this year, and have received more than $1.8 million in sales tax revenues from previous years. I flush out the details below. (As Rich also did in his on-line comments.)
In a previous article I made the case that Ballot Initiative 1B, which would extend the “Worthy Cause” sales tax, “is immoral — regardless of how worthy the causes are.” As a compulsory charity, “it is intolerant to people’s values and unfair to charities that must earn our donations. It undermines both the responsibility of donors and the accountability of non-profits that receive forced donations.” Those who voted for the measure could have raised the money in this year’s Worthy Cause Fund had they each donated $50. Instead, they force us all to donate.
Colorado’s Secretary of State office lists the contributors to Citizens for a Worthy Cause here. Boulder County lists the recipients of the tax revenues here. What follows are the dollar figures for each organization, and links to where you can make a voluntary donation.
The Daily Camera published my article on the 2008 Boulder County Ballot Issue 1B today. (print version)
Update: The so-called “Citizens for a Worthy Cause” that support this are really the very organizations that receive the tax revenue. See here.
Ballot Issue 1B: It’s not Your Penny to Give
by Brian T. Schwartz
Would you call the police on someone who didn’t donate to a charity that you consider to be a “worthy cause”? If not, then you should oppose County Issue 1B in this November’s election, which would extend the so-called “Worthy Cause” sales tax. This tax is immoral — regardless of how worthy the causes are. It is compulsory charity, or charity at gun-point. It is intolerant to people’s values and unfair to charities that must earn our donations. It undermines both the responsibility of donors and the accountability of non-profits that receive forced donations.
