Charitable Giving – Daley, Bush and Us
Back when all those rich Republicans were running for the senatorial nomination, I tried to do a story on what percentage each was giving to charity.
From what I remember, current GOP state chairman Andy McKenna was the highest, closing in on the Biblical 10%.
Today I saw stories on Mayor Richard Daley’s and President George Bush’s income tax returns.
The Daley’s reported $13,690 out of $363,647 went to charities (and churches, I would presume, but the story does not say).
The Bush’s reported $78,100 to churches and charities out of their $765,801 income.
The percentages are
3.8% for the Daley family and 10.2% for the Bush family.Both are less than what Methodist Church founder John Wesley recommended:
Gain all you can.Wesley died with very little, having given away what he got as it came to him.
Save all you can.
Give all you can.
A Korean Methodist bishop recommended willing about one-third of one’s life’s assets to one’s children and giving the rest to charity.
High standards indeed that few can live up to in this materialistic world.
And the Skinners' favorite charity this year, besides our church, is Rise International, which builds schools in rural Angola for $12,500.
And, with local elections coming up Tuesday, there is and has been a lot more on McHenry County Blog about them.
10 comments:
I read that article and almost spit out my coffee. The Daleys made over $360K and gave charities just 3.8%? The same man who has no problem fleecing taxpayers is incredibly miserly with his own money. The Daleys should be ashamed of themselves.
The Daley Family only gave 3.8% of their declared income. If you add in all the "Other Income", Daley gave dirt. Maybe less than 1%.
I must respectfully disagree with the assessment of my good friend Patrick McDonough (who is a bit distracted at this time, trying to help elect the mother of his children, Patrice McDonough, as the next Alderman of the 6th Ward of Des Plaines on Tuesday).
The reason why the Daley family percentage of charitable donations is so low is because either uses his campaign committee funds to give to those churches or other institutions or arranges for them to receive some sort of government grant (which mean we, as taxpayers, foot the bill). Of course, Mayor Daley is a generous man. Otherwise, why would all of those black ministers be willing to sell out their communities in exchange for the apparent crumbs that the Mayor is shelling out?
Patrick, tell Patrice I said "Good luck on Tuesday."
Our family income is only slightly lower than the Daleys' and we give about the same amount or less to charity.
That's not because we are greedy and selfish but because there are very few charities which use contributors' money effectively.
Most charities, like state government, are larded with administrators (some of them probably put there by politicians who have given our state money to the charity) who receive outsized salaries totally unconnected to performance...whatever performance may be. Not much money squeaks through to the supposed beneficiaries.
I give to a friend's small international charity because I know where the money goes and to local pet causes where I also volunteer but that's it. And I'm certainly not going to give money so the United Way chairperson can
make a million a year in compensation--or to any Chicago based charity that employees politically connected persons who couldn't get a job with the city or state. Patronage extends beyond the state into charities as well.
Far too much charity is wasted on throwing money at undeserving employees of those charities, especially, as in state government, upper level employees
My main charity is my adult kids.
And since they don't work for the state with its lush compensation package including free retirement and health benefits, they're gonna need it.
Anonymous: You have no idea what you are talking about. There is no "free" retirement with the state of Illinois. State employees pay their share just like any other retirementcorporate plan. They also (or most of them) pay into a deferred compensation system, a 401K if you wish, that they can use for retirement. The state pays nothing towards those savings. How you do is a function of how smart you are with picking stocks. And state employees, just like other employees in a corporation that provides health insurance, pay their portion, both while they are working AND when they retire. Just like the rest of the world, state employees get no free lunch. And I sincerely doubt that a vast proportion of those outside state government would want to work there these days and have to deal with the governor and his highly paid primadonnas he has stuffed agencies with, who either don't show up for work 90% of the time or have no idea what is going on or what their staff's duties are.
Most agencies are running themselves on the knowledge and experience of the remaining old-time employees who DO know what their responsibilities to the taxpayers are and they do it.
disgusted;;
Most of the private sector employees who are supporting their public sector counterparts' retirements don't have a retirement plan or retiree health insurance, free or not.
I'm sure the guv's political hacks don't show up for work most of the time--that's part of the deal. But that's financially insignficant compared with the billions Illinois taxpayers must pay to support lavish state retiree pension and health benefits which they themselves will never see.
This type of nonsense is what keeps good people from going into politics. I very dissapointed with you, Mr Skinner!
"Where your treasure is, there lies your heart". How and where we spend our money says a lot more about us than most seem to think.
What was the Bush housing budget? Travel? Food?
No doubt the mayor and Mrs. Daley are treated often. But this is hardly an apt comparison.
But hey, don't sprain your shoulder patting yourself on the back, ok?
Who cares if the Daleys have to pay for their own housing? So do most Chicagoans who make far less than the Daleys and they spare more than 3.8%. Most people I know don't get free tickets/airfare to the Super Bowl or cronies treating them to dinner.
Daley strongarms the business community into giving to Maggie's After School Matters. Is donating their own money to charity beneath the Daleys?
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