Ah, those wonderful Kentucky Republican Christian Values!! We all know that the Kentucky Republican Party represents the most greedy and least patriotic among us, but this story takes the cake. Not being merely content during Christmastime to try and cost millions of middle-class jobs American workers have fought for, it seems that former pitcher, and slightly deranged Senator Jim Bunning has set up a Non-Profit charity to avoid taxes that profits, well Jim Bunning!! You gotta love the Republican spirit of giving!!
The Lexington Herald-Leader has this charming story of the selflessness of Kentucky Republicans:
U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., set up a charitable foundation in 1996, the year he entered baseball's Hall of Fame. Every year since, he has been the fund's biggest recipient.
The non-profit Jim Bunning Foundation, which collects the money the former pitcher gets from autographing baseball memorabilia, has taken in more than $504,000, Senate and tax records show.
Of that, Bunning has earned $180,000 in salary for working a reported hour a week.
By contrast, the foundation has given $136,435, or about one-fourth of its income, to churches and charitable groups around Northern Kentucky. The largest sums went to local Catholic churches Bunning has attended.
Records show that Bunning is the foundation's sole employee and the only person to draw a paycheck from it.
http://www.kentucky.com/...
So, let me get this straight. A man who decries and seeks to demonize Union workers for wanting wages and benefits which would create an American middle-class has been working an hour a week for a sweet, $180,000 in profits??
Maybe it is time for old "Screwball" Jim to demand a renegotiating of his own contract!!
Of course, Bunning's partners in greed which includes a lobbyist and his wife are quick to defend him:
Friends defend Bunning's salary. There couldn't be a Jim Bunning Foundation unless there was a Jim Bunning, said Rick Robinson, a Washington lobbyist who handles the foundation's records.
"The foundation is a charity that hired Jim Bunning to work for it," said Robinson. "Without hiring him to do this, the charity wouldn't have any income."
The foundation is overseen by a three-member board: the senator's wife, Mary Bunning; an old friend, Cincinnati tire dealer Bob Sumerel, whose family has given about $25,000 to Bunning's campaigns; and Robinson, a former congressional aide to Bunning whose lobbying clients in recent years have received budget earmarks from the senator.
http://www.kentucky.com/...
There is nothing like a few lucrative earmarks to get one in the Christmas spirit indeed!!!
Watchdog groups weren't buying it:
Watchdog groups this week said the foundation blurs a number of Senate ethics and Internal Revenue Service rules regarding outside income for members of Congress, legitimate uses for tax-exempt charities and whether Bunning — as a paid employee — improperly dominates the foundation's board.
"For him to be taking more for himself than he gives to the charities just doesn't look good, no matter how you cut it," said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago.
"The IRS doesn't want people to just set up their weekend hobbies as nonprofit foundations so they can take advantage of the tax-protection rules," Borochoff said.
http://www.kentucky.com/...
Of course, they have much reason to be skeptical:
Charity watchdogs said it's admirable to start a foundation. But they question the $20,000 salary that Bunning, 77, takes every year, while the foundation gives an average $13,600 a year to charities.
Bunning's salary alone — not counting payroll taxes, legal expenses and other administrative costs — has consumed 36 percent of the money his foundation has collected, the largest share. Only 27 percent has gone to charitable work.
A legitimate charity's administrative costs should be between 20 to 30 percent of its expenses, with most of its money going to charitable work, said Claire Gaudiani, professor at the New York University Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising.
Referring to the numbers at the Jim Bunning Foundation, Gaudiani said: "These are the wrong percentages. This is backwards."
Because the foundation takes in more than it spends, it keeps a growing savings account — $146,342 as of last Jan. 1 — invested in a mutual fund
http://www.kentucky.com/...
The former lobbyist then proceeds to tell how they hope to give more money in the future, as long as their precious profits are protected:
At some point in the future, Robinson said, the foundation hopes it might build up enough excess cash to distribute the interest income to charities without diminishing the principal. That would give local charities an additional shot at foundation money.
But the foundation has no plan for when this might happen, he added.
Of course, one begins to understand when you see the staggering amounts given to charity last year:
In 2007, the foundation divided $18,200 among 25 recipients. Bunning's current church, St. Therese Catholic Church in Southgate, received $5,250, by far the largest single donation. In previous years, when St. Catherine of Siena Church in Fort Thomas was his church, St. Catherine got the largest donations.
The donations are large enough for the Jim Bunning Foundation to be credited by name in the charities' promotional materials released throughout the community.
The three-member board that runs the foundation decides which charities to support and how much to give, not Bunning, Robinson said. But he could not explain how the choices are made.
"There's no real method to the madness," he said.
Senator Bunning and his lobbyist friend should be ashamed of themselves. Using non-profit status to protect profits from baseball signings all while fighting to destroy unions and middle-class wages??
How very Christian!!!
The good news is that folks in Michigan who stand to lose their jobs and see their economy further crushed aren't buying Bunning's for profit non-profit garbage:
Bunning was to appear today at the Gibraltar Trade Center. But he was kicked off the schedule after helping derail the loan package in the Senate on Thursday night.
''I simply cannot support anyone who, in my opinion, votes against the economic well-being of our great state,'' said trade center owner James Koester.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Couldn't have happened to a better tax dodger!!!
It is never too early to begin the work on ousting this guy:
http://www.actblue.com/...