Can anyone on this blog explain to me why Park Ridge Baseball, which enjoys "Affiliate" status of the Park Ridge Park District pays no federal taxes and perhaps more interestingly does not file Tax Form 990 (which is typically filed for non-profit organizations). They utilize our parks and facilities at no cost (from what I can tell from the Park Ridge Park District budget). Shouldn't one of the requirements of being an "Affiliate" of the Park District be that we understand their economics? PRU can you help get to the bottom of this?
The following comment was submitted and posted to PRU --
October 28, 2009 8:31 AM
Anonymous said...
Ask, and ye shall receive, if time and resources allow.
Here is the information we have been able to gather --
Former Park Board Commissioner, Steve Hunst, began looking into the issue of the Big 4 Affiliates -- Baseball, Football, Hockey and Soccer -- and whether the Park District had obtained their financial information.
When Mr. Hunst delved into the mess, he found out that while Soccer and Hockey had been dutifully filing their tax returns on an annual basis, Football had failed to do so for nearly 40 years and Baseball had failed to file for the better part of 55 years.
As the commenter correctly stated, 501(c)(3) organizations are required by law to file tax returns. Some form of tax return is required for all non-profit organizations.
Apparently, the Park District had a policy in place whereby they requested the annual tax returns of any affiliate who actually filed a tax return. Thus, for years, they had the Hockey and Soccer returns, but nothing for Baseball or Football -- and no one on the staff questioned this because the policy only sought to obtain those that had actually been filed.
A huge stink was raised with the Baseball people and they begrudgingly filed their first tax return last year, as did the folks from Football.
We understand these affiliate programs bring in well in excess of $500,000.00 per year, each. However, the commenter was incorrect in stating that the affiliates pay nothing to the PRRPD. Each of the Big 4 pays $5.00 per kid to the PRRPD -- for each kid who registers in a given session -- to offset the costs of maintaining the fields, etc. that the Park District incurs. Additionally, Hockey pays more than the $5.00 per kid fee; Hocky pays thousands of dollars in ice time fees.
Generally speaking, we have heard nothing but good things about the affiliates and the programs they run. A few months back, Park Ridge Youth Soccer wrote a check for $400,000.00 to the PRRPD which was to go towards improvements in the soccer fields at Northeast Park.
We also understand both Soccer and Hockey have both written big checks to the Park District over the years to improve and maintain facilities they use.
Unfortunately, it does look as if Baseball and Football have never once opened their checkbooks to the Park District to provide anything beyond the mandatory $5.00 per kid fee.
So there you have it, Anonymous. We hope this information is useful to you.
November 4, 2009
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15 comments:
Baseball and football have not filed tax returns in 40 to 55 years?
Holy cow!
Are there penalties for them?
Anon@1:40 --
We aren't sure.
I would never have guessed the affiliate programs make that much.
I don't have any use for the information but it is interesting.
Thanks Pru.
Anon@4:42 --
You're welcome.
I hope noone minds me being very off topic but I don't know where to put this.
I would like to ask that people handout more Baby Ruth bars on Halloween. My kids didn't get any and those are my favorite to grab from the candy stash. We need more candy diversity!
Thank you for attention to this pressing concern.
Anon @ 7:14: Have you checked the pool at the country club???
"It's no big deal..."
7:14--there are these places in town (remember to shop Park Ridge), where you can actually BUY Baby Ruths!
8:05--good one!
gypsy, you are no fun at all.
8:05, you are funny!
Nov. 4-1:40 pm-Yes there are penalties for failure to file the Form 990. But the bigger issue is the lack of financial accountability by the board of baseball and football.
The board of baseball has been in place for a long time-check the website, some of the men have been on for decades. That means the same group of men have been controlling the money for years. Without preparing financial statements and filing a return, the public has no idea where all the money has gone or what it has been spent on. This is why these tax filings which must be made available to the public are so important for a publicly funded organization to comply with.
In addition, it appears that baseball is an Illinois non profit. It had never filed for tax exempt status from the IRS until the PRPD board started looking into the matter a few years ago when they discovered the lack of disclosure by the baseball board. So technically, baseball may have been required to file some other tax return with the IRS until it officially asked for and received 501(c)(3) status. That also may have subjected PR baseball to taxes that they did not pay because they did not file.
It also worth noting that the park district spends millions each year maintaining the fields that are used by the affiliates. The affiliates-particularly baseball-have the right of first refusal of the fields. So as I understand it, if another baseball program was started of PR kids and they wanted to use PR fields, they would have to get permission from PR baseball to use them. This dispite the fact that baseball only pays $5 per kid toward the cost of maintenance that includes grass cutting, leveling the infield, filling in the dirt and all the personnel and equipment that goes along with it. It is hard to believe that $5 per kid from about 2000 or so kids would cover these maintenance costs.
So baseball has a monopoly on the use of the fields yet taxpayer money pays to maintain the fields. Then the baseball board does not even have the decency to follow the rules and provide financial disclosure on how they spend the public's money. Perhaps they can explain why.
It is true that PR Baseball gets to dictate who uses the baseball fields. There have been a couple of separate "independent" Park Ridge baseball teams who have organized and wanted to play on fields in their home town. To do so, they had to go through and basically beg from Park Ridge Baseball. It was never a fair process for those teams. Park Ridge Baseball does serve a large group of children, but they are not the only baseball organizations that serve Park Ridge children, and they should be accountable to the Park Board and the citizens if they want to maintain their affiliate status.
Don't these kids parents already pay taxes? You people are pathetic.
Anonymous 1207,
What is your point? Because they have kids and because they pay taxes they should get even more subsidies from taxpayers?
I pay the same taxes as these parents with these kids in these programs. I don't have kids in these programs. Where's my refund?
A 990 form is okay for disclosure, but it wouldn't it be better to actually force these organizations to have their records audited annually by a CPA? This is standard procedure for any non-profit filing for grant money.
Yes an audit should be performed. But baseball and football had to be forced by the PRPD to file a Form 990. Good luck getting the president of baseball to comply with the requirement to have an audit done. It is time baseball and soccer and football are run through the park district. The PRPD should collect the fees and pays the bills. The affiliates can have boards to make decisions-but the money should be handled by the PRPD. The lack of accountability shown by the baseball board leaves no other option.
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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