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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: FaultLine who wrote (15526)11/7/2003 1:57:39 PM
From: LindyBill  Read Replies (1) of 793743
 
End NPR subsidy:
Windfall can replace
federal funding
Manchester Union Leader

JOAN KROC, widow of McDonald’s tycoon Ray Kroc, has just given National Public Radio the power to set the American taxpayer free.

Kroc, who died on Oct. 13, left $200 million to NPR, the organization announced yesterday. That’s nearly twice NPR’s annual budget.

National Public Radio has been telling us for years that just under 1 percent of its budget comes from the federal government. NPR’s last fiscal year budget was $103 million, which puts its federal subsidy at around $1 million.

All of the controversy surrounding NPR’s public funding would immediately end if the company used Kroc’s donation to create an endowment to replace its government funding. Investing the whole $200 million would generate many times the amount of the federal subsidy and instantly halt all political bickering over public funding for NPR.

Federal law requires tax-exempt charitable endowments to spend at least 5 percent of the market value of their investments each year. Five percent of $200 million is $10 million. That’s ten times the amount NPR receives from the federal government. The additional revenue could be used to offset the federal subsidies that go directly to local public radio stations, which account for roughly 15 percent of NPR member station budgets, according to The Washington Post.

Using Kroc’s money to set the taxpayers free would be the most honorable use of NPR’s new windfall. NPR probably will blow it all on additional leftist programming while continuing to insist that it can’t survive without a federal subsidy.
theunionleader.com
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