Public Policy + Advocacy

After over a year of deliberation and much handwringing on all sides, the Trump administration finally abandoned their desire to have a citizenship question on next year’s census. Instead, they intend to use other “administrative” means to find this data. This is good news for now as the census numbers are used to determine federal dollar amounts […]

A study released last week by the Center for Budget Policy and Priorities (CBPP)  shows how the Trump administration’s proposal to change the way the federal government measures poverty could cause millions of people to lose health and food benefits. The federal poverty line is used to determine who’s eligible for benefits like SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid […]

The US Supreme Court just ruled that while the US Constitution does not prevent the administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census (split along ideological lines), it upheld part of a federal judge’s ruling barring the question. Chief Justice Roberts joined the liberal judges saying that under a U.S. law called the […]

The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy conducted research and released a report, Charitable Giving and Tax Incentives, analyzing the potential impact of five distinct federal policy ideas meant to increase charitable giving. The potential approaches included caps and floors on giving and tax credits. The report, commissioned byIndependent Sector, found that the proposals […]

Joined by Democratic and Republican lawmakers, Governor Janet Mills today signed into law the state’s Fiscal Year 2020-2021 biennial budget. The budget, which the Legislature enacted last Friday with the bipartisan support of two-thirds of its members, expands health care, improves Maine’s education system, provides property tax relief, and invests in the state’s Rainy Day […]

Does your organization rely on federal grants? Many in Maine do. As we at MANP have been saying, unless Congress votes to make changes by January 2020, we will see an increase in the salary-level threshold for white-collar exemptions to $35,308 per year up from the current $23,660. Many non-profit organizations are concerned about this […]

Thank you to those who responded to our Flash Poll of April 23rd. We learned that 28.5% of respondents reimburse their volunteers and 64.2 did not. (The remainder did not reply yes or no.) Background Volunteers who drive their vehicles when they perform work on behalf of a nonprofit are restricted in tax law to […]

The Maine Legislature is poised to enact a historic bill that would require paid leave for employees of any business or nonprofit with 11 or more employees. The bill, LD 369, was amended in the Labor and Housing Committee at the urging of Governor Mills. The original bill would have established paid sick leave and would […]

We are alarmed by the early reporting showing that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act or “TSJA” enacted last year has already had a negative impact on giving and that it may only get worse. One of the problems stems from the new tax law doubling the standard deduction to $24,000 for married couples and $12,000 for single filers. […]

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law Public Law No. 115-97, unofficially called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, imposing a 21-percent unrelated business income tax (UBIT) on nonprofits that provide their commuting employees with parking and transit benefits. (This does not include non-commuting mileage reimbursement.) In about two weeks, charitable nonprofits, houses of worship, foundations, and […]