From one of my three regular readers:

Mike,

I fail to understand how you can attack non-profits and churches, don’t you realize all the good that comes from there actions? It’s true you can get revenue from them but at what cost? You’ve lost your moral compass. If these charities didn’t exist, who would provide help to those in need? The government? Surely you’re not that naive.

This tax churches and non-charities thing needs to stop. It shows that you’re a mean spirited person and also shows why atheists shouldn’t be trusted. It’s clear from your blatherings you have no morals or scruples. Do us all a favor and keep your ideas to yourself.

Sincerely,
John

Well John (surname and e-mail kept private to protect the guilty) – you’re certainly entitled to your opinion and I wish you would have left this as a comment rather than sending it to my inbox. This is one of the more scathing responses received from my exercise of my first amendment rights while blogging.

Where to start, first, I’m not generally attacking non-profits (though I have to admit, I am generally attacking churches.) My beef does not happen to be with the 85% of non-profits with annual revenues less than $250,000 per year. In fact, I applaud such organizations because I believe they actually are doing good in their communities. Case in point, our local PTO on the coast raises around $150,000 per year to supplement the public school’s curriculum and staffing. Virtually all of the money raised is used for the programs and no one is drawing a rich salary and benefits from the proceeds.

Where I have a problem with non-profits is when the revenue exceeds such a level (and I am open to argument that $250k may be too low a threshold) that it becomes clear that the organization in question, secular or religious, is using the non-profit tax designation as a means to not pay taxes on their business. And you can argue all you like about the term business, but when an entity is bringing in a substantial amount of money on an annual basis and holds substantial assets over time, it is a business and it is a business that should pay tax for the greater good.

Coming back to the church portion for a moment, religion is a means of control for the population. When the churches sent tens of millions of dollars into California to promote their moral imperative of “protecting traditional marriage” they crossed the line between church and state in a big way. There needs to be recognition of this and changes need to be made so that if churches wish to participate (read fund) such activities, there should be a cost of so doing. That cost, rightfully, should be the revocation of their tax-exempt status. Then they can feel free to lobby as any other business in the state with no objection from the likes of me.

Next, there is an assertion of “good that these organizations do” from John. Well, I guess that all depends on how you define good. If that means discriminating against those who do not share your views, I guess that would qualify as good to you John. If that means dangling help in front of those who need it most in exchange for surrendering their free will, I guess that is good to you John. If that means engaging in “holy wars” to fulfill vague predictions recorded by ignorant sheepherders over 2,000 years ago, I guess that’s good to you John. But when I consider these and many other instances of “good,” I have to wonder just who’s moral compass is broken?

Finally, keeping my ideas to myself. Sorry to disappoint you John, but there’s not a chance of that happening. I’ll ignore the other pejorative aspects of your missive, but rest assured, part of my personal mission, being a good ancestor, is speaking out about things I think are important and more importantly, taking action. The time is right to close the non-profit (churches included) loophole in the California tax code and the time is right to start to free minds from the willful delusions of organized religion. Those are things worth fighting for and things I will fight for.

So John, have something more to say? Leave a comment. For that matter, anyone interested is welcome to do so. I moderate for spam, not for content and am perfectly happy to have divergent viewpoints represented. It is a (moderately) free country after all.

Last week I wrote that the free lunch for churches ought to be ended. And, I still think that’s the case. However, after a conversation with a friend last week about this, I think the lens should be broadened to include non-profits generally. Would it surprise you to know that there are 107,620 non-profit organizations registered in California? It was a surprise for me. The total annual revenue for those non-profits $122,064,153,463 through October, 2008 according to the The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics. The total registered assets for these charities is $219,137,897,358 in the same time period.

Now, delving a little deeper into the data, it turns out that 91,153, or 85% of these charities take in less than $250,000 per year accounting for just 1.5% of total annual revenue. That’s eye-opening and says to me, that these non-profits should get the tax break and the other 15% who bring in the $120B annually should be paying the 10.3% state income tax as they are not really non-profits, they’re large scale enterprises working the non-profit angle as a tax shelter. There’s $12B per year that helps close the gap.

So, what do you say Arnie? Let’s close the loophole on this and get the budget back in shape.

Pointed out to us by our daughter “look, a happy banana!” It was too good not to snap a quick picture and share…..

The California State budget is predicted to have a $11 billion deficit. That’s right, $11,000,000,000. Now, the Democrats don’t want to cut anything and the Republicans don’t want to raise taxes (though they are willing to borrow against the future and misappropriate funds as a solution.) While we can’t solve the entire problem, we can make a significant dent by implementing the following suggestion.

Rescind tax exempt status from churches and have them pay California income taxes like any other business.

Why do this? Well, since god, through his human minions, seems to want to be ever more involved in the state, I think it’s time to stop the free lunch and have god pay the freight. How can this help solve the budget crisis?

Well, let’s do a little math. There are approximately 35 million California residents. According to ABC News, 83% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. That means that likely around 29 million Californians are Christian. Now, the per capita income for California is $41,571 meaning the total income of the likely Christian population is $1.21 trillion dollars.

According to the scriptures, each Christian is obliged to tithe, or give 10% of their income to the church in god’s name. That means that around $121 billion dollars is flowing into the coffers of California’s churches each year; if, in fact, the faithful are faithful in following the dogma of the church. So, the standard California business tax rate is 10.3% meaning there should be around $12.4 billion dollars in taxable income available each year to help defray state expenses. And, it’s available without any additional increase in taxes to individuals and would preserve a number of key state services.

Now, you’re probably saying “not all of those Christians regularly attend church and probably not all of them give the full tithe” to which I answer, you’re probably right. So let’s discount the rate by 50% to $6.2 billion dollars per year. It’s still worth doing and would only provide benefit to the community at large. And since churches seem to be so concerned with the welfare of others, and it’s in the Christian spirit to give, I don’t see how there could be any credible opposition to such a plan.

So, Arnie, what do you say? It’s $6 billion per year ripe for the picking. Let’s go pluck it!

On Friday night, China Standard Time, I had one of the most enjoyable and memorable dinners ever at a restaurant called the Legend of the Flower (Hua Jia Yi Yuan) on Ghost Street (Gui Jie) in Beijing. The meal started as around eight people converged on the restaurant from our office in two cars during rush hour traffic, one group left 30 minutes later than the other and took a taxi the other group traveled in a private car. The taxi group arrived first!

Ghost Street itself is a long line of restaurant after restaurant. There are many places with paper lanterns hanging on over the street/sidewalk. Hua Jia is a seafood restaurant accessible via a long passageway from the street with the fare for the night living in tanks just before walking through the door into an old, traditional building. On the way in was a charcoal grill of sorts where piles of yams were cooking, we asked for one and ate it as an appetizer at a large round table with a turn-table located in the middle.

Since most of the members of the party were native Chinese, they had a spirited debate about which dishes would be most tasty and, I think, decided to try everything discussed. As stated, Hua Jia is a seafood restaurant, so seafood was the theme for the dinner with a little duck thrown in on the side.

While I liked almost everything (not so much the onions and fish skin,) the hit of the dinner for me had to be the egg plant. I’m not a big egg plant eater, but this was prepared in the most delicious way to be very flavorful and hot/spicy. The “spicy little things” – or “bug thorn crickets” really a small shrimp fried in chilies and crayfish prepared similarly were certainly interesting and challenging and delicious treats (requiring gloves as the animals were disarticulated and eaten on your plate.)

The company was great, everyone was in a fine spirit and that was amplified by local Chinese beer and wine. Many stories were shared and I believe much fun was had by all. All of this would have been enough, but apparently Hua Jia hosts a show each Friday night. And how to describe it is a little difficult, perhaps a variety show would be the best tag from acrobats, to noodle artists who turn dough into pasta finer than angel hair before your eyes, to a mask dancer who was able to hide his mask with a fan and in a split second change the design on the mask dramatically, to a unicycle riding dish thrower/catcher (you’d really have to see it to believe it.)

In short, it was a great night and one I’ll long remember. If I’m ever in Beijing again, one I’ll certainly want to experience again. If you’re ever there, I can’t recommend Hua Jia highly enough.