Executive Councilor Dave Wheeler opposes rubber-stamping another $250,000.00 taxpayer-backed disbursement to fund an already heavily subsidized program run by Good News Garage. The program is supposed to fix up cars and donate them to eligible Welfare recipients, but it does not lack in funding. According to Wheeler, and the Union Leader, they’ve already received $1.75 Million in taxpayer dollars for the next two years for this one program. Sounds well-funded to me.
You know what else is well funded? The organization that runs Good News Garage, Lutheran Social Services of New England, which changed its name to Ascentria. In the 2014 filing (the last year for which I could find a 990), Ascentria’s CEO, Angela Bovill, received almost a quarter million (Kaching!) in compensation all by herself.
The Executive VP CFO earned more than $172,000. The Executive VP-COO – $92,500.00. The Treasurer collected $121,000.00, and the VP of Human Resources took home over $121,000.00. Three other officers combined raked in over $407,800.00. (Ascentria spends more than half of its annual revenue on salaries and benefits.)
So cash flow is good at Ascentria Community Services. (From 2009-2013 Ascentria collected over $132 million in revenue) and Good News Garage is just one of the many well-funded “community” services this group pays so much in salaries and benefits to provide.
And if it interests you, Federally funded refugee relocation is a big part of what they do, including here in New Hampshire.
LIRS, Lutheran Immigration, and Refugee Services, is a taxpayer sponge that collected nearly $60 million in 2015 for refugee relocation, most of that from the Federal government. (As of 2016 92% of LIRS funding was Federal tax dollars.) Some of these dollars probably go to Ascentria for Refugee services rendered.
Again, money is abundant.
Now no one is suggesting that the idea of rehabbing cars for eligible people in need is a bad one. We are suggesting that the people behind it are making a lot of money, have a lot of money, and access to plenty more without New Hampshire “rubber-stamping” another quarter of a million taxpayer dollars regardless of which government entity laundered them. (These Organizations get buckets of money from various private donors who could easily afford to give more.)
And as Councilor Wheeler points out, there are six people on salary just for that one program. A program backstopped by a 6-10 million a year “business” (Ascentria) with a million-dollar-plus per year regional staff, backed by affiliated national Lutheran organizations drowning in tens of millions of federal dollars, with multi-million dollar payrolls of their own.
We’ve got nearly $20 trillion in national debt, a number that has doubled since Obama took office.
That problem doesn’t begin to go away unless people of principle stop the bleeding and speak out against organizations milking taxpayers for millions in salaries to mismanage taxpayer-funded scams.
Thank you, Councilor Wheeler. If only there were more of you.
Corrections. Ascentria, LIRS, etc., are not technically non-profits, they just don’t pay taxes. I’ve amended the text accordingly. I also corrected the reference to Angela Bovell’s compensation. It’s almost a quarter-mil, not more than a quarter million (as of 2013). It may be more now.
