Did everyone get that? 501c3 organized churches are CORPORATIONS in the eyes of the government, and the government can use 501c3 restrictions to PUNISH Churches that violate those restrictions.
Churches knew about those restrictions when they orgainzed themselves as a corporation under the 501c3 designation BUT IGNORED IT, because they liked the tax breaks that a 501c3 status offered them. Now their blindness & greed is coming back to haunt them!
District Attorney Jaime Esparza disclosed Friday that he has launched an investigation into allegations that Pastor Tom Brown and his church have acted illegally in their effort to recall Mayor John Cook and two city representatives.
“We have received a complaint and are looking into the matter,” Esparza said, declining to elaborate further.
The announcement comes a day after Cook said some of the tactics used by Brown and others to gather signatures in an effort to oust him and city Reps. Susie Byrd and Steve Ortega violate state election law and the IRS code.
Esparza said the complaint he received was separate from concerns raised by Cook, but he would investigate both, and other related matters.
Brown’s website says signatures are being gathered in at least five churches around the city, which Cook says violates the state prohibition against corporations participating in certain political activities. Gathering signatures in churches also violates IRS rules that say tax-exempt organizations can’t encourage people to vote for or against political candidates, Cook said.
Brown, the recall drives’ leader, reportedly is out of the country and was unavailable for comment on Friday. No officials at any of the of churches listed on his website returned calls.
But their efforts raised the mayor’s ire.
“You would think the media would follow up allegations of what we are hearing,” Cook said in an email circulated to area news outlets this week. “We’re getting more reports from more people that Tom Brown’s folks are hitting the houses of worship hard and directly asking them to permit them to circulate petitions at the churches, or have the churches circulate petitions. Has any media outlet followed up on this?
“This is not just an IRS issue either,” the email said. “The Tex. Elec. Code … prohibits corporations (including nonprofit) from making ‘a political contribution or political expenditure in connection with a recall election, including the circulation and submission of a petition to call an election.’ ”
Violations of the law are punishable as a third-degree felony, the mayor’s email said.
“I think a complaint should be filed with law enforcement,” Cook said in an interview Thursday at the Doubletree Hotel in Downtown El Paso. He was careful to take up the matter outside of City Hall for fear that he would be accused of using city resources to engage in electoral politics.
Cook said he would not file a complaint himself. “I have a personal stake in this,” he said.
Andy Wilson, who follows election law for the watchdog group Public Citizen, said gathering recall signatures in churches that are nonprofit corporations likely runs against Texas law.
“That would seem to me to be a violation,” Wilson said Friday in a telephone interview from Austin.
Brown in the past has argued that a recall election is different from a regular election and is not subject to the same rules.
Cook, Byrd and Ortega are under threat of recall for their votes to offer health insurance to gay and unmarried partners of city employees.
The city had offered such benefits until November. An initiative placed on the ballot by Brown’s group, El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values, passed, repealing city health benefits for everybody except employees, their legal spouses and dependents, and others whose benefits were protected by state law.
Only 19 city employees took advantage of the domestic-partners benefit — and only two of them were reported to be members of same-sex couples. But more than 100 stood to lose health insurance because of the ballot initiative.
By a razor-thin margin, the City Council in June voted to restore benefits for everybody. Ortega, Byrd and now-former city Reps. Beto O’Rourke and Rachel Quintana voted for the measure. Cook broke the tie in their favor.
In reaction, Brown’s group on July 18 filed its intent with the city to recall Cook, Ortega and Byrd.
The law gives them 60 days, or until Sept. 16, to gather 6,100 signatures to hold an election to oust Cook, and about 650 each to recall Byrd and Ortega.
In late June, Brown announced his intent to lead a recall drive at his congregation, Word of Life Church.
He also is promoting the drive on his Tom Brown Ministries website, which he says is separate from the church.
Both actions prompted the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State to complain to the IRS that Word of Life had violated rules governing its tax-exempt status. The IRS thus far has not commented on the complaint.
Bob Strong, a member of El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values, said Friday that he was not familiar with the allegations involving election law.
But he did not believe that churches active in the effort have violated IRS rules, he said.
“As far as the IRS is concerned, churches can’t endorse candidates,” he said. “Traditional Family Values hasn’t endorsed anybody.”
An IRS publication, “Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations,” says, “Churches and religious organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”
Byrd has said recall supporters might have violated other rules. Those who raise and spend money for election-related activities are required to form political-action committees and file campaign-finance reports with the municipal clerk’s office.
She provided the Times with a recall-petition form printed on heavy-stock paper.
Even if the forms were donated, they would be considered an in-kind contribution and subject to disclosure rules.
Brian Heller, assistant municipal clerk, on Thursday said he didn’t believe that campaign finance reports would have to be filed until a recall election is called.
But he said groups spending money in the effort should already have formed committees and registered their treasurers with the clerk’s office.
The grouop Citizens Against Recall Petition has registered a treasurer, Alex Neill, with Heller’s office, he said. El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values, a group campaigning to recall Mayor John Cook and city Reps. Susie Byrd and Steve Ortega, has also registered a treasurer with the Municipal Clerk’s office.
Cook was asked why voters should care whether Brown’s group has followed campaign and tax laws.
“Most of the complaints I have heard are that I interfered with people’s right to vote,” he said of overturning the ballot initiative.
“If you believe that, you should believe the election laws are sacred.”
Byrd had similar objections.
“I have no problem with the fact that they’re pursuing this,” she said.
“But what we should insist on from everybody is that they follow the law. This is unfair to my constituents.”
True Discernment 
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