From Your Representative: The Charitable Y2Y Glut

Good Heavens.

It seems every time I turn around, there’s another “charitable” organization, non-government organization, or “sustainable” entity popping up, to make all of our lives better somehow. I’m not talking about the good charities which have been established and which do the public good. We know which ones those are and have supported those generously.

I’m talking about the hordes upon hordes of non-profit entities being dumped into our communities. How many can we support? They don’t pay taxes (hence the “non-profit” status given them by the IRS and the state Department of Revenue). Their overhead is sometimes huge where directors or managers take in sizeable salaries to do very little public good or work.

It’s getting out of hand. I just received, on May 7, a letter from another one called the “Yellowstone to Yukon” conservation initiative. This non-profit oversees other non-profits which oversee the sustainability of wildlife and plants from here to the Yukon.

No kidding. Why is it necessary?

We have state, federal, local and even tribal governmental departments that do exactly the same thing. Why should your hard-earned dollars (given in taxes or out of your pocketbook) support the salaries of these overseers of overseers? Let’s get serious. We all want to do the public good; it’s in our nature. But when the glut of charities gets so thick that we cannot function as a society it’s time to change our way of thinking. When we hear of a new organization purporting to do charitable work we admire, it’s up to us to research it and determine whether: 1. it’s necessary; 2. it’s properly administered and overhead is not the primary purpose that it serves; and 3. our tax dollars do not pay for the very same service as a governmental department or office. In researching the Yellowstone to Yukon organization (Y2Y), this is what I found on Wikipedia’s website:

“The Y2Y region traverses two countries, five American states, two Canadian provinces, two Canadian territories, the reservation or traditional lands of over 30 Native governments, and a number of government land agencies… Other challenges for conservation in the region include human development, resource extraction, negative human-wildlife interactions, climate change, and transportation (roads and railways).”

We live inside Y2Y area. Call me with questions or comments 8496096 or email jannataylor@montana.com.