IV. IN CONCLUSION It must be remembered that voluntary giving is a fragile thing. It has to be encouraged, nurtured, protected. on demand. Voluntary gifts cannot be legislated into being; they cannot be produced There is a limit to the giver's willingness to give. Government officials had much to say last spring about an impending taxpayer's revolt. In the nonprofit world, we hear warnings of a giver's revolt, and rumblings of the exhaustion of the volunteer civic leadership required to keep these contribution campaigns going year after year. As operating costs spiral and force charitable and educational organizations each year to seek more and larger contributions than the year before, we fear the day will come when the givers will lapse into a state of utter frustration and hopelessness over their ability to meet the challenges of private philanthropy. We may be close enough to this point that enactment of these complicated strictures on tax treatment of contributions coupled with actual cancellation of long established tax incentives for giving would prove to be the final push toward a disastrous breakdown in the willingness of voluntary givers even to attempt to continue to shoulder these charitable burdens. America's record in private philanthropy is one of the things that sets it apart among all nations. That record is due to courageous and enlightened tax policies of our Government throughout its 193-year history. We plead with our Government to continue searching for a solution that will correct tax abuses but that will not induce paralysis of this nation's private philanthropy. 1. THE PROVISIONS OF H.R. 13270 WILL ADD TO THE COST OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS. THE PREPONDERANT SHARE OF THE MUNICIPAL CAPITAL NEEDS OF PEOPLE ARE 11. EXEMPTION OF MUNICIPAL BOND INTEREST FROM FEDERAL TAXATION IS ONE OF THE III. THE PROVISIONS OF THE TAX Reform Act wILL IMPAIR THE MARKETING OF MUNICIPAL IV. MUNICIPAL BONDS ARE ''PEOPLE BONDS'. THEY MAKE POSSIBLE THE FACILITIES WHICH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS NEED TO FURNISH FOR THE SATISFACTION OF THE NEEDS OF THEIR PEOPLE. V. THE MUNICIPAL BOND PURCHASER DOES PAY A TAX ONE THAT INURES TO THE BENEFIT VI. THIS IS AN INOPPORTUNE TIME TO CONSIDER INNOVATIONS TO THE SYSTEM OF MUNICIPAL VII. THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION COULD MEAN AT LEAST A TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF VIII. THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION CAN BE EXPECTED TO ADD ADMINISTRATIVE OVER-BURDEN. IX. IMPAIRMENT OF THE TAX EXEMPT STATUS OF MUNICIPAL BONDS WILL CONTRIBUTE FURTHER TO THE TAX PROBLEMS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT. X. THE PROVISIONS OF H.R. 13270 MUST BE ACCEPTED AS A HARBINGER OF FURTHER EROSION OF THE EXEMPTION OF MUNICIPAL BONDS, HONORABLE SENATOR RUSSELL LONG, CHAIRMAN, UNITED STATES SENATE TESTIMONY OF OS MON R. SPRINGSTED WITH REFERENCE TO THE PROVISIONS OF H.R. 13270, TAX REFORM ACT OF 1969, RELATING TO THE IMMUNITY OF THE YIELD OF SPRINGSTED INCORPORATED IS A MUNICIPAL CONSULTING FIRM ENGAGED PRINCIPALLY WITH MUNICIPAL FINANCING. AS SUCH, IT IS CURRENTLY SERVING 118 UNITS OF GOVERNMENT IN THE Five-State aREA OF IOWA, MINNESOTA, NORTH DAKOTA, SOUTH DAKOTA AND WISCONSIN. THE FIRM WILL ASSIST ITS CLIENTS WITH APPROXIMATELY 90 MILLION DOLLARS OF BONDING THIS YEAR. IT DOES NOT BUY OR SELL BONDS. ITS ONLY CONCERN IS TO ASSIST THE MUNICIPALITIES IT SERVES TO ACCOMPLISH THE ISSUANCE OF THEIR BONDS AS ECONOMICALLY AND EXPEDITIOUSLY AS POSSIBLE. THROUGH AUGUST OF THIS YEAR THERE WERE AT LEAST 367 BOND OFFERINGS TOTALLING IN EXCESS OF $452,000,000 BY THE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS OF THIS FIVE-STATE AREA. THE AVERAGE SIZE OF THE OFFERINGS WAS $1,234,092 BUT THEY RANGED IN SIZE FROM $14,000 TO MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SALES. THE PROCEEDS OF THESE BOND ISSUES WERE USED TO BUILD SCHOOLS, STREETS, SEWERS, PARKS AND ALL OF THE OTHER FACILITIES REQUIRED TO MEET THE PEOPLE NEEDS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT. |