Task Force Minutes

APPROVAL OF NOVEMBER MINUTES
Sue asked whether any corrections need to be made to the November minutes. Spence moved that the minutes be approved as distributed. Ralph seconded the motion. All approved by voice vote.

WEB SITE UPDATE
Linda had forwarded to Galen the list of all organizations with endowments that the Montana Community Foundation manages, which Galen processed, crosschecking the Task Force web site to make sure all were included. He added 76 endowments to the county map on the Task Force web site. There are 51 for which he couldn't determine the county; Linda said she would clarify that. Linda will ask in the next correspondence between MCF and these groups whether they have a web site, and if so, to forward that information to MCF or to Galen directly if they want to be crosslinked to the TF web site.

Sue put a question to the group: how can we use the web site more effectively, especially during the legislative session? She suggested we need a way to let legislators know - before the session - that the web site is there if they have questions. Sharen questioned whether legislators tend to go to a web site when they seek information.

Linda passed on Aidan's suggestion that we do not contact legislators before the session, as they will be overwhelmed with other matters, but that we be prepared to pull forces together at a moment's notice once the session begins. She agreed that we need to provide information to legislators - especially to their staff, who are generally more oriented toward the internet. She noted that the Capitol is wired for the internet. In answer to Sharen's question, Linda said that in her experience legislators seek a lobbyist when they need information about a bill.

Sharen said that one strategy might be to have messages ready to e-mail at a moment's notice. She agreed that flooding legislators with information too far in advance would simply get lost. She suggested that the other thing we could do with the web site is post testimony given by representatives of smaller charities at the last regular session about the impact the tax credit has had on their operations (e.g. Judy Held's testimony about the "jaws of life," the testimony from the firefighters and boy scouts, etc.) Sharen thought that, more importantly, we need them to contact their legislators: legislators want to hear from their constituents.

Sue added that Task Force members should remember to add on all correspondence: "For more information, go to www.EndowMontana.org"

Galen thought that it would be helpful to generate a list of those smaller organizations to which legislators might listen, and to send information out to those organizations on a regular basis throughout the session. Linda said that the Task Force could make use of MCF's list serve for that purpose.

For clarification, Tim reiterated the discussion thus far: that we do not want to send out any information to legislators prior to the session, but that we should contact other charitable organizations and direct them to our web site for more information? His question: who is going to do the contacting? The bottom line is linking the technology with the communication.

Linda thought that the first thing should be to get a list of legislators in key positions (e.g. members of the Taxation committees in both chambers, since that is the committee that will first hear tax credit-related bills). Amy noted that the legislative roster and all committee assignments are already posted on the state's web site. For the 2003 roster, go to: http://leg.state.mt.us/css/sessions/58th/Roster.asp?HouseID=0&SessionID=80

For committee assignments: http://leg.state.mt.us/css/committees/standing/SessionCommittee.asp?sessionID=80

UPDATE ON NEW ADMINISTRATIVE RULES FOR THE ENDOWMENT TAX CREDIT
Jim reported that the hearing was held to revise the administrative rules to be in line with the revisions made to the tax credit during the special session. The new rules are posted on the Dept. of Revenue web site as a pdf: http://discoveringmontana.com/revenue/content/5foryourreference/02administrativerules/b-current_dept_rules/pdf/chapter15_subchapter5.pdf. See pages 8 - 11 (of a 12-page pdf document).

FINANCIAL REPORT
Ralph distributed the most recent statement of activities for the Task Force (November 1 through November 30, 2002). It showed a beginning fund balance of $4,404.85 and an ending fund balance of $5,279.85 (with $875 in revenue and $0 in expenses for the period). Ralph said that many requests have gone out as part of the fall fundraising effort, and many have not yet received responses. The good news is that the Task Force has enough money to pay for the lobbyist for the legislative session; the bad news is that's all we have. All agreed that the fundraising efforts need to continue.

Ralph asked Jim whether he's received responses from the trust companies. Jim said that the Task Force should count on the trust companies for contributing at least $6,000 if not $10,000. Dennis said that he is asking the largest hospitals to contribute $1,000 each, and that he hopes to raise $5-6,000 total.

Sue said that Aidan will be representing the Task Force at the Legislature by herself, but that she might need additional help as the session progresses. Sue thought that Aidan had someone in mind, as does Steve Browning. Clark pointed out that John Delano should be consulted throughout the session, given his wealth of experience. Clark will ask John whether he can commit lobbying time to the Task Force. Jim thought we should think of John as a "special teams player," that we shouldn't count on him being there all of the time. Clark agreed. He thought that he and Cheri Burns and others who've lobbied the tax credit in previous sessions could be part of that team as well.

Jim reiterated that the goal of the fundraising effort is $25,000.

THE MONTANA ENDOWMENT TAX CREDIT: PROJECTED REVENUE IMPACT
Jim said that he's trying to reconcile the numbers from the report generated by Steve and Cindy Utterback with the numbers he knows from the trust companies: the report's findings are true, but only part of the story, because Steve and Cindy were trying to be conservative in their assumptions. Linda said that she and Aidan would like to create a handout on those findings, if Jim could provide more realistic numbers. Jim said that he would sit down with Cindy and work it out. He thought the information would be very helpful in making the case that the tax credit is good business for Montana. Sue reiterated that a handout needs to be simple, easy enough for a legislator with no previous knowledge of the issue to understand.

Linda passed around a handout showing the revenue impact of the tax credit forecast for the 2005 biennium. These were the numbers estimated by the Legislative Fiscal Analyst, based on the revised law passed in the 2002 Special Session, and therefore are the numbers the legislators are going to see if a revision of the tax credit comes before them:

Clark thought that these numbers were overstated. Others agreed. Clark pointed out that the reason the State is facing a deficit right now is because the capital gains has dried up, and that the tax credit is closely tied to the same economic factors. Linda noted that the figures show only the tax credit claimed, and do not take into account any of the revenue offset from new taxable income generated from charitable gift annuities. Sue thought that the Task Force needs to gather anecdotes to explain the revenue offset issue: someone who turned stock into a charitable gift annuity and is now being taxed on the earnings from the annuity. Jim thought that if Kurt Alme could be convinced of that revenue offset, then the Legislature would listen to that argument, although he didn't think that Kurt would champion the revenue-offset argument. Linda pointed out that the Legislature's point person is Jim Standaert, the Legislative Fiscal Analyst, whereas Kurt represents the Executive branch.

Jim agreed that the Fiscal Analyst's numbers do not reflect the true situation. Linda suggested we find out the assumptions used to determine these numbers. It would be interesting to calculate the same numbers showing a scenario in which the tax credit did not increase in 2003 but rather stayed the same. She cautioned herself not to get too focused on the details, however, because the Legislature won't. Clark agreed, and reiterated that the bottom line for a legislator is what s/he hears from his/her constituents.

COMMUNICATIONS
There was some discussion about use of the list serve Galen set up for the Task Force to communicate with others throughout the legislative session, and whether that list is complete. Dennis stressed that we need to reach out to people we might have overlooked in the past. Sue thought that if we send out an informational piece about the list serve, inviting people to join, we could add a plug for people to meet with their legislators and tell them how their organization has benefited from the tax credit, and that they should contact the Task Force with any questions or concerns.

There was some discussion about the Auditor's bill regulating charities that issue charitable gift annuities, and whether the Task Force should be proactively talking about it. It was agreed that the Auditor's bill should be mentioned in the same initial communication about the tax credit so that the two issues can be distinguished as separate.

Linda will bring the list serve list to the next meeting so that the group can identify anyone missing. Amy asked Galen whether it is possible to e-mail all of the organizations listed on our web site, to ask whether they'd like to be part of the list serve. Galen said that we could send a general e-mail to that list, but it would have to be addressed generically (e.g. to "webmaster"). Linda thought that we could enlist Mike Schectman to help incorporate more names, or ask him to include information about our list serve in his correspondences. Linda said that MCF would figure out a way to communicate with their client base (Galen thought that would take care of most of the entities on the Task Force web site), clarifying the two different bills and asking them to write back with an e-mail address if they want to be included on the list serve.

Linda reiterated that all Task Force members should be thinking about who has the ear of legislators: organizations that have benefited from the tax credit and have directors and board members who are passionate and articulate. Dennis asked whether we want to get donors involved in talking to their legislators about the benefits of the tax credit. Jim thought that would be a good idea, but best to involve average donors rather than the "big hitters."

NEXT MEETING
Given that the Legislature begins on January 6, it was decided that the next meeting should be delayed until the third Thursday in January.

The next meeting will be on Thursday, January 16, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the downstairs conference room of the Livestock Building (across the street from the NW Power Planning Council, southeast corner of the Capitol grounds).