State Turns to Charities to Fund Budget
August 12, 2009
It is wrong on so many levels, but the basic premise of taking more money
from charities so that you can balance your budget is just despicable.
Instead of trying to cut some of the fat from their budget, the state of
Michigan is looking to take money from the various charities around the
state.
The state has decided that when charities have a fund raiser like a poker
game that instead of them paying $50 a day, they will pay $250 a day. Now
this might not seem like a lot, but when you are dealing with empty food
banks this extra money can do a lot of good. What one must be aware of is
that these charities rent a place for their poker games, they pay the state
$50 for the licensing fee, but they usually have to give half of the
winnings to the place that they have rented. So if they make $2,000 at an
event, they give $1,000 to the business, they give $250 to the state, that
leaves them $750 instead of the $950 they would have had before.
It is a significant change in fees, and places like Bellevue Little League
Football says that for them it is a huge deal. They never have more than
$5,000 in their bank account to start with, but by adding in another fee
they have even less to use to give back to the kids. This move will make
poker playing and everything else impossible for many charities – as they
say that they make so little off of them already that it is a huge loss for
them.
The state simply says that the poker revenue, etc. will bring in millions of
dollars for the state – but at what price?
