Public Watchdog.org

City Donations To Private Charities Is Bad Public Policy

04.05.10

We here at PublicWatchdog are fans of charity, including all those “charitable” private community organizations which provide a variety of services that (we are told) contribute to the “character” of our community.  Which is why, back in the summer of 2008, we encouraged our readers to make voluntary contributions to the Center of Concern (“A Great Time To Support Our Center Of Concern,” 06/16/08). 

But as much as we support and encourage voluntary private contributions to those private organizations, we oppose with equal vigor the contribution of tax dollars forcibly collected by governmental bodies (like the City of Park Ridge) to those very same organizations.

Why?  Because it is, plainly and simply, bad public policy. 

“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government,” stated James Madison, as a member of Congress in a speech in the House of Representatives in January 1794.  In 1887, President Grover Cleveland expressed a similar sentiment: “I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds…[as] I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution.”

Both Madison and Cleveland were not opposed to charitable contributions, just to those contributions being made by government from public funds.

But if the City’s 2010-11 budget is passed “as is” following last Wednesday night’s budget workshop, $185,680 will be taken from the pockets of Park Ridge taxpayers during the coming fiscal year and put in the pockets of the Center of Concern, Meals on Wheels, the Brickton Art Gallery, the Kalo Foundation, and a number of other private organizations; and in the pocket of the quasi-private Senior Center.

For those of you who care about things like police and fire protection, and who understand that responsible budgeting often requires hard choices that sometimes call for robbing Peter to pay Paul, that $185,680 represents almost the full cost of two police officers or firefighters.  And it also represents a good chunk of the extra $5 the Council voted to tack onto the annual cost of your vehicle sticker.

Not surprisingly, two of the principal sponsors of this year’s version of that long-standing bad policy are Alds. Don Bach (3rd) and Robert Ryan (5th), both of whom act and sound like they hold the moral high-ground whenever they talk about these kinds of contributions.  Just last Wednesday night Ryan endorsed these kinds of contributions by claiming that “Park Ridge is a caring community” that wants the Council to make these contributions.

But if the residents of Park Ridge really wanted to make these contributions, they could and would have already made them directly out of their own pockets.  The fact that they haven’t raises an important question that underlies the policy positions expressed by Madison and Cleveland:  What’s “moral” about giving somebody else’s money to the charity of your choice, especially when that money is effectively confiscated from those other somebodies by taxation?

Throwing money at these organizations in this way is also dishonest, because it is unrelated to the nature, kind and amount of services each of these organizations provides to Park Ridge residents.

If funding these organizations is truly something a majority of Park Ridge residents wants the City to do with our tax dollars, the honest way to do it would be for the City to contract to pay a specific amount for each unit of service provided to Park Ridge residents; e.g., X dollars for each meal on wheels delivered to a qualified Park Ridge resident, X dollars for each night of housing provided to a Park Ridge resident by the Center of Concern, X dollars for each concert in the park, etc.

Neither those private organizations nor our aldermen, however, are even suggesting that kind of quid pro quo.  That’s because it ultimately requires accountability – both from the organizations to show what they are providing, to whom, and at what cost; and from the aldermen, to show why they are giving our money away, and why they are giving it to some private organizations but not to others.

So don’t hold your breath waiting for that kind of accountability from either group…unless you look good in blue.

8 comments so far

May I ask how you feel about your tax dollars going to fund Autism research grants and family support and the Special Olympics?

To our knowledge no City funds are going for Autism research grants or for the Special Olympics.  Or for the undeclared war in Afghanistan, if that matters to you.

This post deals only with the City’s donation of public funds to local private community groups.  Obviously, we won’t bar off-topic comments, but we would hope comments stay relevant to the post.

Fair enough!! After all, you are the umpire. You did to choose to quote a president and a congressmen who, last time I checked, are Federal elected officials – not city. I would also tell you that, as a volunteer, there are district 207 facilities used regularly for Special Olympics and other organizations, which represents our local tax dollars.

We did choose to quote federal elected officials – and long-dead ones at that – because they just happen to have been pretty darn prominent ones, and their statements spoke directly to the policy issue of a government making charitable contributions on behalf of its citizens.

But you can quote Ald. Robert Ryan on the issue if you like.  While we’ll take Madison v. Ryan anytime, we realize there are at least a few people in town who would take Ryan – for such solid policy reasons as that he coached their kids in soccer.

But it doesn’t surprise us that Dist. 207 or any other governmental body would let its facilities be used for the Special Olympics or various other “charitable” purposes, presumably free of charge. That’s what happens when elected and appointed officials do what they want without paying any heed to annoyances like “public policy” considerations.

….or public discussions for that matter.

There ya go. You answered my question. That is all I was looking for. Was that so hard??

You overlooked Ryan’s other pitch Wednesday night for money for all those artsy fartsy cultural arts groups. He said their activities occur in the Uptown area and support Uptown businesses. That would explain why all those businesses are throwing off so much sales tax.

Identify specific needs and services, budget for them, and then pay for them as you go. What a novel idea! And the city council and the community groups don’t want to do it that way, why?



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