Tag Archives: Oregonian editorial board

Oregonian to Legislature: Hands off the Trust fund

Enough is more than enough, The Oregonian’s editorial board declared this morning.
Licence to thrill
In an editorial headlined Hard times no license to rob the arts, it takes the Oregon Legislature to task for its hijacking of $1.8 million in donated money to the Oregon Cultural Trust, in addition to other failures to respond to the multiple crises facing the state’s cultural institutions.

Calling the heist of the Trust’s money a “snatch-and-grab,” the editorial board calls for the Legislature to restore the $1.8 million to the Trust. And it goes further: It criticizes the Obama administration for proposing stiff new restrictions on philanthropic gifts to nonprofit groups — new rules that would limit tax breaks to individuals but also potentially dry up funding to groups that desperately need it:

The Obama administration doesn’t get it, either. The administration has included in its tax plan a proposal to cap the tax credit for philanthropic gifts to nonprofits, including arts and culture institutions. Fine, raise income taxes on the wealthy, but why, just when things are getting awfully hard out there for nonprofits, reduce the incentive for people of means to help them survive?

This is good to see. Maybe we’ll get some traction on this thing yet.