Big companies helped fund a secretive Alabama GOP nonprofit, report finds 13MAR14

MORE proof of the shadow government as described in +Mike Lofgren's +Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/essay-anatomy-of-deep-state-21feb14.html

• By Niraj Chokshi

• March 13 at 8:30 am

FedEx donated $10,000 to the group, according to a leaked tax filing. (Charlie Riedel/AP)

A secretive Alabama Republican nonprofit group received $100,000 in 2012 from corporate, trade and other political organizations, according to a new report.
Sixteen organizations donated $5,000 to $15,000 each to the Alabama House Republican Conference, a social welfare nonprofit organization. (Another donated $2,500.) Such nonprofit groups — also known by the 501(c)(4) tax code under which they’re organized — played a starring role in the scandal last year in which the Internal Revenue Service admitted to targeting groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names for inspections.
The list of companies that donated to the group, reportedly an arm of the Alabama House Republican Caucus, includes FedEx, Eli Lilly, Alabama Power Co., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, and Pfizer, according to tax documents obtained by the Center for Public integrity. The documents came to light because of an apparent mistake:

“[W]hen the Center for Public Integrity asked Rachel Adams, the communications director for Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, for a copy of the group’s most recent tax form, she provided a version that is typically only delivered to the Internal Revenue Service and includes contributor names and contribution amounts,” the organization reported.
The $100,000 donated by 17 large donors, listed below, accounts for roughly half of the $204,000 total haul for 2012. A similar Democratic group raised just $2,400 that year, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Name	Location	Amount
Alabama Wholesale Beer Association PAC	Montgomery, Ala.	$15,000
FedEx Corp. PAC	Memphis, Tenn.	$10,000
Eli Lilly & Co. PAC	Indianapolis, Ind.	$7,500
Alabama Education Association	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Alabama Power Co.	Birmingham, Ala.	$5,000
Alabama Retail Association	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Alfa Mutual Insurance Co.	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama	Birmingham, Ala.	$5,000
FGA PAC	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Franklin PAC	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Future PAC	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
JM Family Enterprises Inc.	Deerfield Beach, Fla.	$5,000
Manufacture Alabama	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Medical Association of the State of Alabama	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Steve Windom LLC	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Trial Trust	Montgomery, Ala.	$5,000
Pfizer Inc.	New York, N.Y.	$2,500

Niraj Chokshi reports for GovBeat, The Post's state and local policy blog. Before that he had covered economic, budget, tax and transportation policy for National Journal, blogged at The Atlantic and reported on the business of the nation's largest law firms in California for The Recorder. Get GovBeat news in your inbox. Sign up for our twice-weekly newsletter.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/13/big-companies-helped-fund-a-secretive-alabama-gop-nonprofit-report-finds/?wpisrc=nl_pmpol 

What Would Jesus Tax? from SOJO 14APR11

JUST imagine if we had elected officials with the courage to present and pass a moral budget, one that required the wealthy and corporate America to pay it's fair share, one that ended corporate welfare and cone that challenged the power of the military-industrial complex and made real, necessary cuts to the Pentagon budget.....

photo © 2011 John Morgan | more info (via: Wylio)In the face of state and federal budget cuts, many of us have been fasting and contemplating the question: “What would Jesus cut?“ In light of tax day, however, we might equally contemplate: “What would Jesus tax?”
After all, a great deal of our budgetary stress is the result of declining revenue, thanks to the economic downturn and decades of tax cuts.
A new report that I co-authored, “Unnecessary Austerity,” argues that before we make draconian budget cuts at the federal and state level, we should reverse huge tax cuts for the wealthy and tax dodging corporations.
The Jesus I know would be concerned about the extreme inequalities of wealth and power that have emerged in our communities. He would rail against principalities and powers that rig the tax rules so the privileged pay less.
He would lament the destruction of God’s creation through excessive consumption and pollution. And, he would be alarmed about financial and commodity speculation driving up the cost of food and worsening hunger. (In today’s world of high finance, someone would be hedging investments on how quickly Jesus could multiply loaves and fishes.)
In my recent Sojourners magazine article, “Taxes and the Common Good“, I argue that new “sin taxes” should focus on discouraging financial speculation and environmental destruction — while reducing the huge canyon between rich and poor. A good first step would be to reverse some of the more irresponsible tax breaks of the last generation.
When we hear our lawmakers lament that “we’re broke,” consider this fact: If corporations and households with $1 million income paid at the same levels they did in 1961, the Treasury would collect an additional $716 billion a year — or $7 trillion over a decade.
There are two important explanations behind our current budget “squeeze.” First, income and wealth have become extremely concentrated in the hands of the super wealthy. The richest 1 percent of households own more than 35.6 percent of all private wealth — approximately $20 trillion. The number of households with incomes exceeding $1 million has grown from 15,753 in 1961 to 361,000 today, adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, the middle-class standard of living is collapsing and poverty rates are at a 15-year high.
Second, we’ve dramatically reduced taxes on the wealthiest households and global corporations. Congress and special interest lobbyists have made mincemeat of our tax code, losing hundreds of billions in revenue. Worse, lawmakers have averted their eyes as corporate lobbyists drill new tax loopholes and extract new corporate welfare subsidies.
That’s how a profitable company like General Electric legally and aggressively avoids taxes. Since 2006, General Electric has reported over $26 billion in profits, yet paid not one penny in U.S. taxes.
Other huge global companies such as Verizon, Boeing, ExxonMobil, and Federal Express also pay no or very low taxes. In his new book Treasure Islands, journalist Nicholas Shaxson describes how these artful tax dodgers use accounting gymnastics to move money to overseas tax havens like the Cayman Islands or Ireland. They pretend to earn their profits offshore and then report their paper losses here in the United States — reducing their responsibility to the commonweal.
Our “Unnecessary Austerity” report identifies over $4 trillion in potential revenue over the next decade. Closing offshore tax havens could generate an estimated $100 billion a year. Adding new top tax brackets for millionaires could generate another $60-80 billion. Instituting a financial transaction tax could generate $150 billion a year.
No doubt, we will need to reduce government expenditures in a responsible way. There are some farm subsidy programs and military expenditures I have on my list. But if our lens is entirely focused on the expenditure side of the equation, we’re going to miss a huge part of the solution. The prophetic Jesus would turn our head in another direction.
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is co-author, with Mary Wright, of The Moral Measure of the Economy (Orbis Books) and with Bill Gates Sr. of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes (Beacon).