OPINIONS – Understanding the Johnson Amendment: A tax law that prevents nonprofits becoming PACs

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by Tom Waddell

There is a growing but minority movement within the religious community to repeal the Johnson Amendment. If the amendment is repealed, our churches would no longer be houses of worship; instead they would become Political Action Committees (PACs). It is for these reasons repealing the amendment is widely opposed by both religious and non-religious groups.

The purpose of the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law that modifies the IRS tax code for all 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt corporations, is to prevent these corporations from becoming Political Action Committees. It does this by prohibiting all 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt corporations, including churches, from campaigning for or against political candidates.

The current administration in Washington and a small minority of evangelical Protestant churches want to repeal the amendment because they believe it limits their religious freedom. Their goal is to allow all churches to support political candidates while maintaining their tax-free status. That would make political contributions to 501 (c) (3) charitable organizations tax deductible.

The Johnson Amendment preserves a charitable organization’s right to support, or oppose, any government policy, law, bill, statute or social issue that they believe is not in their or the community’s best interest. The amendment also protects charitable organizations, including churches, from pressure by political candidates to endorse them in an ever-increasing divisive and partisan political atmosphere.

Repealing the Johnson Amendment and allowing 501 (c) (3) tax-deductible corporations to maintain their tax-free status would result in donors making political contributions to candidates primarily through their local church. Unlike Political Action Committees, which churches would fast become, churches don’t have to deduct operating costs from those donations. In addition, the donor would be able to deduct political contributions, something not allowed now, when they make political contributions through a charitable organization. It is a win/win situation for the donor class, but a lose/lose situation for churches, state and federal governments.

Churches will lose because repealing the amendment would bring political divisiveness into the church. Clergy and parishioners want their churches to remain a place of worship where members sit in the sanctuary or gather at coffee hour in groups of friends and neighbors. They want their church to be a place where parishioners gather as a united community in worship, not divided by political ideology. Local, state, and federal governments would lose, too. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, repealing the amendment would cost America $7.7 billion over ten years through lost tax revenue.

An overwhelming majority of charitable organizations and churches support the Johnson Amendment. Lifeway Research, an evangelical Christian polling group that regards the Johnson Amendment as policing sermons, reported in their 2016 survey that nearly 80 percent of Americans oppose repealing the amendment. It is no surprise then that more than 8,500 faith and secular leaders signed a document asking Congress to preserve the amendment. Americans do not want charitable organizations and churches to be divided by partisan politics.

Some of the well-known churches and charitable organizations that support keeping the Johnson Amendment are: American Baptists, American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, Catholics for Choice, Evangelical Lutheran Church, Goodwill Industries, Habitat for Humanity, League of Women Voters, Meals on Wheels, National Council of Churches, National Council of Nonprofits, Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist Association, United Church of Christ, Volunteers of America, and the YWCA.

If the Johnson Amendment is repealed, churches will, in effect, become political action committees, not houses of worship. They will also experience the same division and lack of trust within the congregation that is so common in today’s volatile political atmosphere.

Whether churches become money-laundering establishments for politicians is up to you. If you are part of the 80 percent of Americans who want to preserve the sanctity of your local church, I urge you to vote for candidates who support the Johnson Amendment in the 2020 elections. Doing so will determine the future of your place of worship, your community and your country.

Tom Waddell is a resident of Litchfield and is the president of the Maine chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. He can be reached at president@ffrfmaine.org.

OPINIONS: Embden selectmen refuse to schedule special town meeting on citizens’ petition

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by Sandi Howard

At the Embden Select Board on September 4, 2019, town residents submitted a Citizen’s petition for a town vote on the CMP corridor and a vote to enact an electrical transmission moratorium ordinance.

The selectboard refused to schedule a special town meeting for this vote despite residents following all of the legal requirements to submit this petition. Embden resident and lead petition gatherer questioned the board about this decision. Selectboard Chairman Chuck Taylor responded that their decision was based on advice of the town’s attorney, Ken Lexier.

The board’s decision seems inconsistent with an email communication sent by Chuck Taylor, selectboard chairman to Sandra Howard on August 1, 2019, which reads as follows:

“Dear Mrs. Howard,
We’re good. There will be no permitting in Embden. Thanks for your concern.
-Chuck”

“We are disappointed with the Emdben selectboard’s decision to refuse town residents the opportunity to have a voice on the CMP corridor. Like in the town of Jay, Embden’s town leaders are not representing the will of their constituents,” said Sandra Howard, Director of Say NO to NECEC.

It is very important to understand that the municipal officers may not refuse a petition merely because, from their political or personal perspective on what is appropriate for the municipality, they believe the petition is unreasonable. A select board’s denial of a citizen’s petition must be objectively reasonable as a matter of law, not merely subjectively reasonable in the view of the municipal officers.

Because Embden’s Select Board is refusing to allow residents to vote on the CMP corridor, town residents are now circulating a new petition addressed to a state notary, who has authority to call a special town meeting for a vote on the CMP corridor. In addition, the petition will ask town residents to vote to enact an electrical transmission moratorium ordinance.

An electrical transmission moratorium ordinance would serve as a pause in any electricity transmission corridor development in a town for 180 days. To date, CMP has not received approval for most of state and federal corridor permits it needs. CMP is starting to ask towns for provisional permits, which would take full effect only after the state and Federal permits are secured. It is important to note that the U.S. EPA has raised serious concerns about CMP’s permit applications. CMP is under multiple investigations by state energy regulators right now, so allowing any municipal permitting to go ahead puts the town at risk.

Sandi Howard is Director, Say NO to NECEC. She can be reached at 603-475-4566.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: An ugly, scary looking wasp that isn’t so scary, after all

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Left, a giant ichneumon wasp photographed at a camp in Glenburn, and right, a pigeon horntail wasp.

Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

A little while ago, the pastor at my church sent a photo to me of a bug he spotted at his camp. It was a scary looking bug that neither of us had ever seen before. It was yellow in color, had long legs and a long protruding appenditure that resembled a stinger.

So, it was time to call on my friends at the Maine Forest Service for some input. Here is what we found.

The bug is called the Giant Ichneumon Wasp, Megarhyssa macrurus.

There are several different species of Ichneumon Wasps, each with its own color variations. Some are black and yellow, others reddish and striped. All have the Ichneumon Wasps body shape: a thin waist and an abdomen longer than the rest of the body.

Females have a long, needle-like ovipositor which is often mistaken as a stinger. The sturdy ovipositor acts like a syringe, injecting eggs deep into wood (live trees or logs) where the larvae will feed on any other insect larvae already deposited there. It is not uncommon to see females poking around wood in an attempt to find a good place to deposit her eggs. Males do not have the ovipositor so their abdomen are shorter. Both genders are still wasps, however. Despite their large size and being “wasps” these are harmless to humans and unable to sting.

Giant Ichneumon Wasps tend to live in wooded areas and throughout all of North America, though they do stay away from arid and hot desert regions and scarcely treed central plains.

Ichneumon Wasp adults do not eat at all. Larvae are parasites of Pigeon Horntail larvae, another type of wasp that deposits eggs in wood. The Ichneumon wasp larvae will hatch and feed on the Horntail Wasp larvae.

When an insect develops on a single host, and kills the host in the process, it is called a parasitoid. Parasites, on the other hand, tend to nibble on their hosts without killing them. And predators kill more than one of their prey items.

The giant ichneumon wasp is a parasitoid, notable for its extremely long ovipositor which it uses to deposit an egg into a tunnel in dead wood bored by its host, the larva of a similarly large species of horntail. Another of its common names is stump stabber, referring to its behavior.

When a parasitoid kills its host, it can indeed be a gruesome sight. Typically, an adult female parasitoid lays an egg on the surface of, or into the body of, a living larva of another insect. When the egg hatches, the parasitoid proceeds to consume the host, piece by piece. Like a cat with a mouse, it keeps its victim alive as long as possible. Dead larvae rot quickly, and this makes the meal less attractive. First the parasitoid eats the fat bodies of the larva, then the digestive organs, keeping the heart and central nervous system intact for as long as possible. Finally, they are eaten as well and the long-suffering victim dies, leaving an empty caterpillar shell.

The slow death inflicted by parasitoids that attack other insects tested the concept of a benevolent God for 19th century theologians who discussed this practice at length. Even Darwin had trouble with the largest parasitoid family as he wrote to Asa Gray in 1860: “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars….”

The female giant ichneumon wasp is a striking animal, two inches long, boldly patterned in brown, orange and yellow. Her two- to -four-inch long ovipositor with its two protective filaments looks like three long tails. Some parasitoids can choose to lay their eggs on a variety of host species, but giant ichneumon wasps need to find a larva of a pigeon horntail. Nothing else will do.

The ovipositor looks like a single filament, but it comprises three filaments, the middle one of which is the actual ovipositor, which is capable of drilling into wood. This central filament also appears to be a single filament, but is made of two parts, with a cutting edge at the tip. The two parts interlock and slide against each other.

Although very thin, the ovipositor is a tube and the egg being laid moves down a tiny channel in its center. The outer two filaments are sheaths which protect the ovipositor; they are out to the sides during egg-laying

The presence of giant ichneumons on a tree is not a good sign because they are an indication that horntail wasp are attacking the tree. Horntail wasps attack trees that are already under stress. Often by the time the wood-boring insects have started attacking the tree it is in irreversible decline.

Fortunately, for my pastor, the giant ichneumon wasp he saw was on a dead stump of a tree, and not on a healthy one.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

For how many teams did NFL quarterback Joe Montana play?

Answer can be found here.

Roland’s Trivia Question for Thursday, September 19, 2019

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For how many teams did NFL quarterback Joe Montana play?

Answer:

Two. San Francisco 49ers 1979 – 1990 & 1992; Kansas City Chiefs 1993-94.

Lasell College honors class of 2019 at 165th commencement ceremony

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A record number of graduate and undergraduate students at Lasell College, in Newton, Massachusetts, were awarded degrees on May 11, 2019, in a ceremony featuring remarks from Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Kennedy III.

Vincent Marchesi, of Waterville, graduated with a BS in accounting.

Chad Martin, of Fairfield, graduated with a BS in finance.

Local Residents initiated into the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi

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The following local residents were recently initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society.

Brooke Curtis, of Skowhegan, was initiated at University of Maine.

Jazzy Osborn of Clinton, was initiated at University of Maine.

Waterville receives $229,334 to purchase breathing apparatus

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photo from Waterville Fire & Rescue Facebook page

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today $40.8 million in direct assistance grants to 202 fire departments nationwide through the agency’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program. Additional phases will soon be announced.

The Waterville Fire Department will receive $229,334 from FEMA for an Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG). The grant will be used to purchase 34 breathing apparatuses for Waterville’s firefighters.

In addition, the announcement includes Assistance to Firefighters Grants to Windham, Cascp, Standish, Gorham and Brunswick.

The primary goal of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) is to meet the firefighting and emergency response needs of fire departments and nonaffiliated emergency medical service organizations. Since 2001, AFG has helped firefighters and other first responders obtain critically needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training and other resources necessary for protecting the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards.

This grant is funded through FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program. Eligible applicants include local fire departments, fire districts, nonaffiliated EMS organizations, tribal fire departments and State Fire Training Academies. The grant applications are submitted from each agency directly to FEMA, where the applications are reviewed and scored by fire service personnel from throughout the nation.

FEMA obligates funding for this project directly to the recipient agencies. It is the recipient agency’s responsibility to manage their grant award within federal guidelines with technical assistance and monitoring provided by FEMA Fire Program Specialists.

Additional information about FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters grant program(s) may be found at https://www.fema.gov/firegrants.

SOLON & BEYOND: News from Solon Elementary School

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Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percyby Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning, my friends. Don’t worry, be happy!

As always I was very happy to receive the Solon School newsletter. The Principal’s Message states: “The Solon staff and I wish to welcome our new students in grades PreK-5 and their families to our school and to welcome back those who have been with us before. I hope all of you enjoyed a wonderful summer.

“I am the principal of both Solon Elementary and Garret Schenck Elementary School so I split my time between the schools. I am here for half of each day. Our school secretary Mrs. Tanya McFadyen can help parents with any issues they may have and can help you make contact with me if you wish to.

“Mr. Terry Corson will serve as our lead teacher and will help me handle discipline issues.

“We are pleased to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students again this year under the district’s community eligibility program. Students can buy milk or juice for snack or to go with a cold lunch if they wish to for 30 cents.

“Again this year our students will have healthy snacks provided through a fresh fruits and vegetables grant program on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

“Please contact us if you have any questions. Thank-you for your cooperation. We look forward to a great new year!

“An open house will be held on Wednesday, September 25, from 6 – 7 p.m. Enjoy refresments , visit the classrooms. Please join us!

“On August 23, our new kindergartners attended an open house to acquaint them with their teacher Mre. Jen LaChance and to find out what life would be like in kindergarten. They listened to a story, participated in a scavenger hunt , enjoyed a snack, and played outside on the playground.

“The following is if you have bus questions or concerns. If you have general questions about bussing, please call our Transportation Director Lorie Agren at 431-8812. When your children are on the bus and you have concerns about pick-up or drop-off, please call Bonnie (a.m.) or Candy (p.m.), at Carrabec Community School, at 635-2209 and they can radio the bus driver.”

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS: Answer your darn phone!

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Growing your businessby Dan Beaulieu
Business consultant

I know you’re busy, out there in the job. Working as hard as you can to please your customers, and grow your business. But there is still one thing you need to do to make sure that your business always looks professional. One thing, that if you do better than anyone else, will set you apart in a big, way, a very big way, and that is the way you handle phone calls, yes, the way you answer your phone.

There is nothing more aggravating to a customer — or potential customer — than not having anyone on the other end of the line when they are trying to reach you. Whether it’s a current customer who wants to talk to you about a job; or worse, has a complaint that he wants to talk to you about, she wants to talk to you now! Or maybe it’s a new potential customer who wants to ask you about your services and rates, now that’s a phone call you really want to answer if you are serious about growing your business. There is no doubt that answering the phone in a timely fashion is one of the most important things you can do for your business and for your customers.

If you think about it for a minute you will come to realize that in the case of a new potential customer, for example, the way you “do phone” will be the first impression that person has of you, your company and the way you do business. So, you’d better be good at it.

Personalize the situation, it has happened to all of us. Many of us have called a plumber because the toilet is overflowing, or an electrician because yours is the only house on the street whose power is off. You really want to talk to someone now! Or your porch roof looks like it is about to collapse under the weight of the 40 inches of wet snow that fell last night, you want someone to answer that phone, now. But instead you wait by the phone for hours feeling helpless as the situation seems to get worse by the minute! And the longer you wait the more resentful you get. If you’re the person not calling them back… don’t count on growing your business.

We all get it. The way you answer your phone, the way you deal with phone calls is critical to the way you keep your customers happy and grow your business.

So, keeping that in mind, here a few tips on how to deal with phone calls:

  • If your company is small, and you have no one at the office, or the house who can answer the phone, then carry a cell phone and answer it wherever you are. Take the time to answer it to at least find out what the caller wants and let her know when you can get to her place to fix the problem, if it is an emergency. If it’s not an emergency then tell him when you will call him back, preferably that evening.
  • Another idea is to have two phone numbers; one for normal business and one for emergencies and get your customers to use the emergency number only when there is an emergency. Oh, I can hear you groan that some people will always use the emergency number, and yes, you’re right. But for the rest of the customers. It will be an impressive option and show how much you care about customer service, and they will indeed honor your system.
  • Put all of your current customers’ numbers in your phone so that you will see who is calling when they are calling which will allow you to instantly triage the calls thus giving you some idea of who is calling and more easily make a decision about calling them back.
  • If you are lucky enough to have an office with a person manning the phones then always make sure that person is courteous and is well trained enough to know when the call is important enough to notify you to call the customer immediately, or when there is time so that you can call when you have some free time later in the day. This person should also have your calendar so that he or she can make appointments for you.
  • And finally, the voice mail. That necessary evil of all businesses. Make sure your message is clear, concise and, of course, courteous and maybe add a clever little statement that will make the caller smile a bit when leaving the message. And always, always let the caller know exactly how long it will take for you to call her back

In the end, it’s all about looking and feeling professional to your customers. The way you answer your phone and the way you return phone calls will go a long way when you are truly serious about growing your business.

Square dancers attend New England convention

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Front row, from left to right, Dave and Ellie Mulcahy, Margaret Carter, Charllotte Sinclair and Nanci Temple. Back, .Cindy Fairfield, Bob Brown, Bruce Carter, Milton Sinclair and Fred Temple. (contributed photo)

A few of the Maine dancers who were able to attend the 61st New England Square and Round Dance Convention, held in Stowe, Vermont.

The clubs represented by these dancers were Squire Town Squares, of Winthrop, Central Maine Squares, of Waterville, Friendship Squares, of Wilton, Pine Cone Reelers, of Augusta and the LeVi Rounders, of Hermon. All of these clubs and other clubs in Maine offer beginner lessons. For more information, call Bob Brown at 447-0094 or Cindy Fairfield at 631-8816.