Politics

U.S. labor unions and nonprofit groups, including the Service Employees International Union and the National Education Association, called on Congress to raise corporate taxes by eliminating “tax subsidies” and to resist calls by business groups to reduce the corporate tax rate.

That position puts the groups in opposition to the Obama administration, which is seeking an overhaul of the corporate tax code that would remove deductions and credits and cut the top corporate rate of 35 percent.

The Internal Revenue Service appears to have begun to enforce a tax on gifts to the nonprofit organizations that were a key vehicle for anonymous politics in the last five years and had promised to play a large role in the presidential cycle, a move which could reshape the place of money in politics in 2012.

"It appears that the IRS Estate and Gift Tax team has also started paying attention to 501(c)(4) organizations," a Los Angeles tax lawyer who has followed the issue closely, Ofer Lion, wrote in a memo to clients.

Head of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke appears aware and supportive of the role of nonprofits in the U.S. economy and its recovery from the rampaging recession — and he said so recently at a Federal Reserve Bank conference on community development. By keynoting the conference along with Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute, Bernanke sounded like the philosophical opposite of Alan Greenspan and an important voice endorsing the service and policy roles of nonprofits. Counting Bernanke as a nonprofit advocate should be headline stuff for the leadership of the nonprofit sector.

Virginia officials are racing to restructure their relationships with more than a dozen charitable organizations that have had their state funding frozen in recent months as a result of guidance from Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli II that payments to charities violates Virginia’s constitution.

The officials say they are confident they will be able to write contracts in coming weeks with most, if not all, of the groups, which include AIDS clinics, community health groups and volunteer rescue squads.

In the wake of a slumping economy, a government-wide charitable giving campaign fell just short last year of matching records set in 2009. The Combined Federal Campaign, considered the largest workplace giving campaign in the world, collected $281.5 million in 2010 from federal civilian, military and postal employees, down from the record $282.6 million collected in 2009.

Last year’s CFC included 209 giving regions across the United States and overseas, benefiting about 25,000 charities, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

With Congress and the White House locked in an impasse over spending and a federal shutdown looming, nonprofit officials nationwide are scrambling to prepare for the worst: The closure of government agencies would halt grants to many nonprofits and stop payments to charities that have contracts to provide emergency food shipments, vaccination clinics, care for the elderly, and home heating aid.

A recent study conducted on behalf of Harvard University's Institute of Politics found that around a third of four-year college students said using online tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has a greater impact than in-person advocacy.

The "Survey of Young Americans' Attitudes toward Politics and Public Service" study, conducted by Knowledge Networks in February, found that 32 percent of college students with Facebook accounts believe advocating for a political position using online tools has more of an impact than advocating in-person.

Louisiana’s biggest corporate players, many with long agendas before the state government, are restricted in making campaign contributions to Gov. Bobby Jindal. But they can give whatever they like to the foundation set up by his wife months after he took office. AT&T, which needed Mr. Jindal, a Republican, to sign off on legislation allowing the company to sell cable television services without having to negotiate with individual parishes, has pledged at least $250,000 to the Supriya Jindal Foundation for Louisiana’s Children.

TownStats.org, launched by nonprofit organization The Independent Center, will allow users to access municipal budget data, as well as salary, property tax, demographics and crime statistics. Currently, 54 budgets are available on the website, but leaders said at a press conference today in Trenton they hope to have all 566 budgets posted by June.

Lobbyists appear to be significantly cutting back on the money they give to support the favored charities of Members of Congress, one of the long-standing ways firms have curried favor with powerful Members.

Lobbying firms and their clients disclosed spending less than $10.4 million on Congressional charity events, meetings and gifts in the last half of 2010, according to a disclosure reports filed at the end of January.