July 2007 No. 28Table of Contents |
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In late June, the US Supreme Court ruled on several contentious cases. In one, they set out the principle that the President is not obligated to observe the constitutional separation of religion and government. In what seemed a medieval “hair splitting,” the Justices interpreted the wording of the First Amendment—“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”—as being a stricture on the legislative branch only and not on the executive branch.
Congress often passes appropriations that include “discretionary” amounts, and these can now be spent by the President and the administration as they see fit. President Bush has created offices for faith-based initiatives within the White House and several federal agencies. The court decided that these fell outside the dictum of the Constitutional limits.
President Bush named two of the current Supreme Court justices, and most of the late-June decisions were made with 5-to-4 majorities that included his new selections. Some critics tie another Bush phenomena to the court’s exclusion of the executive branch from the First Amendment church and state dictum.
Congress’ nonpartisan General Accounting Office reports that federal agencies have ignored 30% of the laws Bush objected to in “signing statements” last year. He penned these for 11 of the 12 Congressional appropriations bills, claiming the right to bypass 160 provisions in them. Since taking office in 2001, Bush issued signing statements challenging 1,100+ laws, topping those of all previous presidents combined.
Some aspects of laws excluded by Bush were minor—such as moving a border checkpoint weekly to prevent illegal immigrant smuggling—but some were major—e.g., torture of Iraq war detainees. Two were failure to get permission of a Congressional committee before an agency took a certain action. This likely will not be the last time Bush and the current Democratic-controlled Congress will cross swords before 2009.
Though the inflation-adjusted growth in charitable giving across the USA rose only 1% last year, the total set a new record and continued an upward curve from the fairly flat early 2000s, reports Giving USA. Individuals again gave the most—76% to $223B—up an inflation-adjusted 1.2%. However, bequests jumped 23% to $12B, perhaps signaling the cusp of the long-predicted Baby Boomer transfer of wealth. Corporate giving rose 17% to $13B, and foundation grants also had a double-digit increase to $36.5B (up 10%).
Since the mid-1990s, USA giving has been 2+% of gross domestic product, after a three decade hiatus when it fell closer to 1.7%. In 2006, American giving has tripled from the inflation-adjusted $98B of 1966.
2006 was unusual because billionaire Warren Buffet gave 85% of his fortune to a consortium of grantmakers, including $36B to the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation that has since doubled its giving and hired another 150 staff. The Buffet largess will continue at 5% of his holdings each year until his death.
Human services. While the public/society benefit category—that includes United Ways—had a healthy 4% gain, human services that United Ways and others fund had an overall 12% decline, comparing 2006 to 2005. The decrease may be last year’s return to more normal donor preferences following the seismic growth that international affairs and human services had in response to late-2004 tsunami and mid-2005 hurricane relief. It is too early to tell for sure.
Giving to universities and other educational groups had a good increase (6%) as did giving to hospitals and healthcare groups (5%). These two categories comprise 21% of total gifts. Giving to religious groups was nearly flat (1%) and accounted for one-third of the national total (33%), down from the 50% it took in during the 1960s.
Half of nonprofit governing groups in America have only white, non-Hispanic members. In fact, the “average” board is 85% non-Hispanic white, 7% black, and 3.5% Hispanic. The mid-point is even more astonishing, 96% white and 0% blacks and Hispanics, reports the Urban Institute’s new Nonprofit Governance in the United States.
The smaller the board, the less likely there will be racial/ethnic diversity. Eighteen percent of nonprofits with 50+% black clientele have no minority group board members, and 36% of those with 25-to-49% black clientele have no black board members.
Many (21%) nonprofits buy goods or services from board members or their affiliated businesses; 41% of those with $10+M budgets did. Only 2% of boards compensated their board members. The primary board functions were to set policy, oversee finances, and evaluate the CEO. You can find the full report at www.urban.org/publications/411479.html.
Among Hoosier-based companies, WellPoint Inc. took in the largest amount of revenue in 2006, $56 Billion, reports the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ). The list of the top 50 public and top 50 private companies appeared in its June 18 issue. There were 28 firms that took in $1+Billion last year—two-thirds more than a decade ago—and the remaining 72 had in excess of $79 Million each. Less than half of the top 100 firms were in the metro Indianapolis area, and 59 of the companies weren’t on the IBJ list in 1997.
The largest 2007 private business was Do It Best Corp. of Fort Wayne with 2006 revenue of $3.1 Billion and 600 FTE workers. Steel Dynamics Inc. of Fort Wayne had the largest revenue growth of public companies—48% to $3.2 Billion. Rea Magnet Wire Co. Inc. had the largest growth for a private firm—154% to $1 Billion.
Eli Lilly & Co. had the largest workforce—15,800—three times #2 Cummins Inc. Yet, there were only 9 at Prime Care Properties LLC that was 86th on the IBJ top 100 list. State government is still the largest employer at 38,000, not counting state universities.
As most of you know, Tom Rugh will continue writing Capitol Steps for the next year or so, even though he’s officially “retired” as an IaUW employee. In June, he surveyed Capitol Steps readers to find out how best it can serve their priority interests. The results are in.
Capitol Steps readers are primarily United Way staff and volunteer leaders, though the trends-letter gets 42% of the “hits” on the IaUW Web site, about 17 per day.
Readers want Capitol Steps to go back to a “what’s new” focus on the broad waterfront of health and human services, but with a twist. They also want some weekly issues to focus on priority topics—particularly philanthropy, poverty, the workforce, and healthcare. Those are the highlights of responses to June’s Capitol Steps readers’ survey.
Capitol Steps will continue to try and present various sides of stories—especially those about political issues—though Rugh may add a personal viewpoint—infrequently—and it will be noted by use of bold italics.
A detailed report of survey results is at www.iauw.org/capitolsteps/capsurvey.pdf.
So, Capitol Steps will bring readers the latest news, reports, and trends from Indiana, the USA, and around the world. But occasionally it will put a spotlight on recent developments in key areas of reader concerns.
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