Common Cause challenges tax-exempt status of American Legislative Exchange Council

[KingOrfeo]

Yes, that ALEC.

I like to think of this development as "ACORN's Revenge."

From The Washington Post:

Advocacy group Common Cause files IRS complaint against conservative legislative group ALEC

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, April 23, 6:22 AMAP

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Open government advocates accused a conservative legislative group Monday of falsely claiming tax-exempt status while doing widespread lobbying.

Advocacy group Common Cause said Monday it had filed an IRS complaint accusing ALEC of masquerading as a public charity. ALEC is formed as a nonprofit that brings together lawmakers and private sector organizations to develop legislation and policy.

ALEC says its work is not lobbying.

Common Cause disagrees. “It tells the IRS in its tax returns that it does no lobbying, yet it exists to pass profit-driven legislation in statehouses all over the country that benefits its corporate members,” said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause, in a statement. “ALEC is not entitled to abuse its charitable tax status to lobby for private corporate interests, and stick the bill to the American taxpayer.”

Common Cause wants an IRS audit of ALEC’s work, penalties and the payment of back taxes.

A spokeswoman for ALEC did not return a call seeking comment.

ALEC has been active since the 1970s and has long drawn the ire of open government groups who question the secretive development of legislation and close relationship between private sector officials and lawmakers who meet at conferences to jointly develop model legislation. Liberal activists have seized on ALEC’s support of so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws, coordinating a campaign against the group in the wake of the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

George Zimmerman, who has been charged in Martin’s death, maintains he shot in self-defense. His attorney plans to cite the “Stand Your Ground” law, which gives people wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat during a fight.

Amid the backlash, several companies who have previously supported ALEC financially, including Coca-Cola Co. and McDonald’s Corp., said they are no longer members. And ALEC said it was disbanding its public safety task force that helped export the Florida law to other states.

Those task forces consume much of ALEC’s spending, and Common Cause believes they are simply forums for lobbying. Common Cause said its complaint was based on more than 4,000 pages of ALEC records, including talking points that ALEC workers provided to lawmakers in order to better argue on behalf of the legislation the group develops.

 

[miles]

I like spaghetti.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

We are glad to see how deeply ACORN's demise affected you.




This shooting case might be the first time I've actually heard of this group.

They must be a very, very powerful of the secretive and vast right-wing conspiracy.

It's good to see them come out of the shadows and take their place in the sun with other such respectable non-lobbying groups such as MediaMatters and MoveOn.org...

btw, President Obama is the son of a Polygamist.

*snicker*

 

[unregistered]

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I wonder if he chowed down on a Chow.

lol


Chow chow...

 

[KingOrfeo]

ALEC is a very real organization that, considering what it does, understandably tries to keep a low profile as far as the general public is concerned.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) describes itself as the largest “membership association of state legislators,” but over 98% of its revenue comes from sources other than legislative dues, primarily from corporations and corporate foundations.[1] After the 2010 congressional midterm elections, ALEC boasted that “among those who won their elections, three of the four former state legislators newly-elected to the U.S. Senate are ALEC Alumni and 27 of the 42 former state legislators newly-elected to the U.S. House are ALEC Alumni.” (A full list of the Congressional freshmen who are ALEC alums can be found here.) [2]

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) They fund almost all of ALEC's operations. Elected legislators who are active in ALEC, overwhelmingly right-wing politicians, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at ALECexposed.org.

ALEC’s agenda extends into almost all areas of law. Its bills undermine environmental regulations and deny climate change; support school privatization; undercut health care reform; defund unions and limit their political influence; restrain legislatures’ abilities to raise revenue through taxes; mandate strict election laws that disenfranchise voters; increase incarceration to benefit the private prison industry, among many other issues. [3]

<snip>

Founding
ALEC was "founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and...Paul Weyrich"[4].

Its articles of incorporation[5], were signed by Donald L. Totten of Schaumberg IL, Donald Lukens of Middletown OH, and Louis Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge LA.


Originally promised "no attempt to influence legislation"
Surprisingly, the nascent group's statement of purpose included this assurance: "No substantial part of the activities of the corporation shall be the carrying on of propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation."[5]


Dec 1975 board
Beyond the 3 founders, the other board members listed in the Articles of Incorporation were:[5] John McCune, Alfred Dellibovi, James A. Mack, Diemer True, David Y. Copeland, Eva Scott, Robert Bales, Frank Henslee, Robert B. Monier, John O. Stull, and Calvin Rucker.


Changes in the 1980s
The National Journal recognized the rising prominence of ALEC in the New Right movement of the mid-1980s in a major feature article. The article noted its connections to the Heritage Foundation, including a shared Capitol Hill building. It also described the organization's political wing, the now defunct ALEC-PAC, which in 1984 targeted 84 legislative seats in states. Notably, the state backed conservative Democrats in some races, getting involved in states with either thin conservative or liberal majorities including Ohio, New Mexico, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington and Wisconsin.

Richard A. Viguerie, a leading new right conservative[6], spoke of ALEC in the context of the growing movement, saying that "leading conservatives [had] 'fairly recently' determined that the state-local level 'is the missing piece of the puzzle for us.'

Then executive director of ALEC Kathleen Teague Rothschild, reflecting the new thinking of conservative strategists, noted that "In Congress, you've got only one legislative body and they will either pass or kill your bill. In the states, if you're trying to get banking deregulation passed and you've lost in Kansas, Nebraska and Texas, it's not a total failure. You may well win in Arizona, California and New York that year. You've got 50 shots."

Teague also noted that a nationwide network present in every state could be effective in supporting amendments to the United States Constitution. "State legislatures must ratify constitutional amendments. If the cumulative efforts of the conservative PACs succeed in pressuring Congress to pass a school prayer or a balanced budget amendment", said Teague, "they'll have to get 38 states to pass those things. You have to have an active support network in the states when ratification time comes."

Corporations supporting ALEC in 1984 included the Edison Electric Institute, Procter & Gamble Co., Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc., Adolph Coors Co. and ARCO. Teague described corporate interest in state legislative affairs as "rising so rapidly that 'I have more big corporations who want to see me, get involved and become members than we can practically cope with.'"

The chairman of ALEC's business policy board at the time was Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld said that his interests in economics and government regulation, rather than social issues, led him to become involved with the organization.

<snip>

Secrecy and Lobbying
Under ALEC’s published by-laws, legislators who are ALEC “state chairmen” have a “duty” to get the model bills introduced in their state legislatures.[28] However, when ALEC legislation is introduced in state houses, it is under the name of the sponsoring legislator rather than ALEC itself, with no mention that the bill was pre-voted on by corporations through ALEC or even connecting the bill to ALEC. The task forces obscure how “corporations [get] access and influence for which they'd otherwise be publicly scrutinized." [29]

NPR reported that "much about ALEC is private. It does not disclose how it spends it money or who gives it to them. ALEC rarely grants interviews. [Senior Director of Policy Michael] Bowman won't even say which legislators are members. Is it lobbying when private corporations pay money to sit in a room with state lawmakers to draft legislation that they then introduce back home? Bowman, a former lobbyist, says, "No, because we're not advocating any positions. We don't tell members to take these bills. We just expose best practices. All we're really doing is developing policies that are in model bill form." [30]

The American Prospect quoted "someone familiar with the organization" of ALEC as saying, "The totality of what they do is lobby. It's a self-sustaining con game." ALEC, however, denied the charge. ALEC’s then spokesman Bob Adams (who now runs and is the only employee of the front group “League of American Voters” CHECK) insisted, "We don't lobby... We don't introduce legislation at the state level. We just don't do that."[31]

In 2009, however, reporters discovered that Shook, Hardy and Bacon attorneys Mark Behrens and Corey Schaecher traveled to North Dakota to speak with legislators and their staff about ALEC’s asbestos bill, called the “Innocent Successor Liability Act,” without registering as lobbyists. At least three days after Schaecher was known to have been lobbying legislators, the ALEC asbestos liability bill was introduce on January 15 as HB 1430. The “North Decoder” blog revealed their lobbying activities on January 23, 2009; within hours, ALEC submitted letters of authorization permitting Behrens and Schaecher to lobby on their behalf, the same day the corporation most likely to benefit the legislation, Crown, Cork, and Seal, also registered the two as lobbyists. On January 27, Behrens testified before the North Dakota House Judiciary Committee in support of the legislation, and the following day, ALEC threw a party for legislators so they could “learn more about America’s premier legislative organization.” [32] According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, this is the only instance in which ALEC has ever registered to lobby in any state. [33] In its 2009 IRS Form 990, in response to the question “Did the organization participate in lobbying activities” (page 3 question 4), ALEC replied “no.” [34]


Conferences
ALEC holds three primary meetings each year: the “Spring Task Force Summit” meeting of ALEC Task Force members, the four-day “Annual Meeting” in the summer for all ALEC members, and the three-day “States and Nation Policy Summit” that “introduces the ALEC agenda to newly elected and freshman state legislators.” [35] [36] In the ALEC brochure advertising corporate membership, it describes these three gatherings as “meetings and networking opportunities.”

Defenders of Wildlife (DOW) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) pointed out in their 2002 report on ALEC that for legislators, one of the chief benefits of ALEC membership is the opportunity to take at least one subsidized or all-expenses-paid trip that looks a lot like a vacation.[37]

The conferences are held in cities across the country, often at high-end hotels. ALEC’s 2010 annual meeting, for example, was held in San Diego at the Manchester Grand Hyatt resort; the 2011 summer meeting is at a post New Orleans Marriott in the French Quarter. Legislators are encouraged to bring their spouses and families, and can pay a $250 fee for their six-month old child or teen to participate in babysitting program called “Kids Congress.” ALEC’s 2009 IRS Form 990 indicates over $250,000 was spent on childcare. [38]

Unlike for the United States Congress, most state-level legislators in the nation are part-time, and many state legislatures meet for only part of the year. The average annual salary for state legislators is $45, 880, ranging from a low of $19,260 (in New Hampshire) to a high of $78,500 (in New York).[39]

In Wisconsin, where the Center for Media and Democracy is located, the total compensation for state legislators is $49,943.[40] According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, base compensation is $19,860 as of May, 2010. [41] Like many states, the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly are not in session year-round, and so many legislators supplement their state salary with other part-time earnings.[42]

For a Wisconsin legislator, the costs of attending an ALEC conference at a resort could be more than five percent of that legislator's state salary. Those expenses, though, are sometimes paid for with taxpayer dollars, or reimbursed by ALEC's corporate-funded coffers.

An examination of financial disclosure forms filed in 1999 and 2000, for example, showed that taxpayers footed the bill for at least $3 million each year in connection with legislators’ travel to ALEC-sponsored meetings.[43] According to NRDC, “that means each year a significant amount of taxpayer money is helping ALEC do its business, which is predominantly aimed at advancing corporate special interests.[44]

An untold number of state lawmakers accept “scholarships” from the corporate-funded ALEC, or in some cases, directly from corporate lobbyists.[45] Without that “scholarship,” attending an ALEC conference could be a vacation the legislator might not otherwise be able to afford. Some states, especially in the South and West, have written explicit exceptions into state ethics laws to permit legislators to accept “scholarships” from ALEC. NPR reported that looking at Arizona's legislators who attended the ALEC conference, no one declared receiving gifts. "Sen. Pearce and a dozen others wrote that they received a gift of $500 or more from ALEC. A review of the two dozen states now considering Arizona's immigration law shows many of those pushing similar legislation across the country are ALEC members. In fact, five of those legislators were in the hotel conference room with the Corrections Corporation of America the day the [immigration] model bill was written. The prison company didn't have to file a lobbying report or disclose any gifts to legislators. They don't even have to tell anyone they were there. All they have to do is pay their ALEC dues and show up."[46] ALEC’s website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce around 1000 pieces of legislation based on ALEC bills, with roughly 18% enacted into law.

 

[miles]

Is Common Cause challenging Media Matters' tax-exempt status?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

It comes to no surprise to us that a trip through Common Cause's directory show it to be somewhat less than bipartisan.





SPY vs SPY

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Is Common Cause challenging Media Matters' tax-exempt status?

They appear to be allies.

 

[miles]

They appear to be allies.

Like...Japan and Germany were?

 

[unregistered]

 

[RobDownSouth]

Like...Japan and Germany were?

^^Tsk....with Miles Ben Zonah, it's all Hitler, all the time

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Like...Japan and Germany were?

My guess would be Germany, Russia and that Throb's a typical Democrat racist...

 

[RobDownSouth]

My guess would be Germany, Russia and that Throb's a typical Democrat racist...

LOL...being called a "racist" by a man who proudly says this...

I call him a nigger all the time. It's funny to watch him turn purple and start spitting...

Spare me your situational outrage splutter, Chief.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Hey, you've just gone after gays too.



Find the quote or own the Democrat tactic!

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Can you guys remember any time I went after Throb or LT's family on a personal basis?




Anyone?

 

[miles]

Can you guys remember any time I went after Throb or LT's family on a personal basis?

Don't tell me he's having his "you went after my family" hallucination again...

 

[Liar]

Heresy! KO, couldn't care less about a left wing propaganda organ working for the President.

Probaganda and lobbying ain't one and the same.

Now, personally I don't see why one should be tax exempt and the other not, but it is what it is, and that's another topic.

 

[sufisaint]

What I love is the Associated Press, when it is liberal causes they are advocates or activists when it is conservative causes its special interests or lobbyists. Kinda like showing Zimmerman in a orange jumpsuit and Martin as little kid. Their reporting reeks like propaganda...

 

[KingOrfeo]

Probaganda and lobbying ain't one and the same.

Now, personally I don't see why one should be tax exempt and the other not, but it is what it is, and that's another topic.

Because if not, the IRS would be able to/have to tax political parties, which would be unprecendented, and probably against the First Amendment (a party ain't a "free assembly" if it can be taxed, is it? that's like a poll tax), and a good idea for no apparent reason.