November 15, 2006

Taxation without compensation to the congregation

Just when I thought this story would never pop up again, NCAA leader Miles Brand responded with a vitriolic 20-page letter to the House Ways and Means Committee defending the organization's tax-exempt status. Some of the more cogent points:
"the NCAA should not be penalized simply because television networks are willing to pay millions or billions of dollars to air games since it does not change the NCAA's primary purpose."

"If the educational purpose of college (sports) could be preserved only by denying the right to telecast the events...the institutions of higher education themselves and even the American taxpayer would ultimately lose"
Gosh, I hate to admit that those make sense to me.

Granted I am not a legal scholar nor an expert on tax-exempt organizations, but I have to think if a National Humane Society existed and they televised dog shows or cat fights and made money from those, that wouldn't detract from their basic tenet to better the life of neglected domestic animals. Well, you might argue abput the catfights...

If you simply want to root against the NCAA, this may not be your fight to get behind...the Rep Bill Thomas of the Cally (GOP) is no longer the chairman, that job now belongs to the always dapper Charles Rangel of New York (Dem). At best, this effort gets gridlocked, at worst this was merely a parting shot for a politician on his way out.

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