Where did our tax dollars go? From the Washington Post, ACORN Funded Political, For-Profit Efforts, Data Show
Documents released by a Senate Republican on Thursday show that leaders of the ACORN community organizing network transferred several million dollars in charitable and government money meant for the poor to arms of the group that have political and sometimes profit-making missions.
ACORN’s tax-exempt groups and allied organizations, long a target of conservative ire, used more than half their charitable and public money in 2006 to pay other ACORN affiliates, according to an analysis by the tax staff of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).
On Thursday, Grassley called the transactions a “big shell game” and said ACORN donors may be surprised by how the liberal group known for helping the poor obtain housing and health care was spending their money. He urged the Internal Revenue Service to take a closer look.
According to the Grassley report, charities “are being used to raise monies which are then funneled to other charities or to other organizations for purposes other than what the donor may have intended. . . . Dollars raised for charitable [purposes] appear to be used for impermissible lobbing and political activity.”…
That was in the past, Bertha Lewis, head of ACORN, says:
Lewis said the organization lacked transparency under Rathke’s leadership, and the board has been working to open up its operations and make sure that money transfers between its groups are well documented.
“What you will see since I took over is a complete overhaul of how everything is coded . . . to make sure that if monies are meant for one thing, they are documented and used for that purpose,” she said.
More at the link.
Tags: ACORN, money trail, taxes