Baxter County Friends of the Taxpayers

MEETING NOTES

BAXTER COUNTY FRIENDS OF THE TAXPAYERS

SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2005

BCFT Director Frank Kaye called the meeting to order at 10 am in the main Fellowship Hall of Redeemer Lutheran Church. Thirty-two members and guests were in attendance. The new members and guests were invited to stand and introduce themselves to the rest of the group.

Treasurer Bill Clark read the treasurer's report. After closing out the "BCFT Committee to Oppose the MH A&P Tax" ballot question committee (which ceased to exist once the A&P Tax election was over), we were left with a balance of $638.58 carried forward.

A question was asked about the group's IRS status. In 2003, the original BCFT filed the paperwork with the IRS to obtain a federal employer ID number, as an "Other nonprofit organization (public awareness)." Nothing further was done at the time; we are looking into what needs to be done next to complete the process of officially registering as a nonprofit organization.

Frank informed the group that he will be meeting Monday with four others (3 from our group, one gentleman from Hot Springs who has been fighting the A&P Tax for over 25 years) to decide on the wording changes that are needed in the A&P Tax code. Meeting is at 1 p.m. at Frank's house -- anyone who'd like to participate is welcome to come.

Ed Schild (coordinator for letters to the editor) reported that he has received a response from Betty Barker Smith, publisher of the Baxter Bulletin (about the unfair treatment he received regarding his letters to the editor). He plans to write another letter to her and send a copy of it to the corporate office as well. Suzan Kaye volunteered to find the address of the Gannett office to contact.

First item of new business was the request from a handful of members to consider changing the meeting time/place to other than Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Several people who would like to be involved are not able to attend at that time -- no one in the group expressed any strong opposition to the idea of altering the schedule; no action was taken at this time.

Ed mentioned that beginning May 1 Redeemer Lutheran will start charging groups $7.50 (for two hours) to use the Fellowship Hall for meetings.

Frank brought up the fact that Rick _____ (owner of Nima's Pizza on the Square) has offered BCFT the use of the entire upstairs of his building as a permanent home for the group. If we were to accept his generous offer, we would have to completely renovate the space and bring it up to code, which would be very costly, even with volunteer labor and donated materials, and would take time away from the projects we need to be concentrating on. Parking downtown could be a problem, and access to the second floor would be impossible for some of our members. Someone asked about PO boxes, and how much they cost (around $35 / year), and said they thought getting a PO box would be a better choice for a separate address for the time being, and to continue meeting at Redeemer and/or other locations when Redeemer isn't available.

It was suggested that we check with the Ramada Inn (which was in favor of the A&P Tax) and Baxter Inn about alternate meeting facilities. Chuck Barnes volunteered to talk to the manager at the Baxter Inn.

Rob Welch volunteered to look into what would be required to renovate Nima's. Ken Blade suggested that we consider purchasing liability insurance, if we go forward with the Nima's idea.

Next item on the agenda was the possibility of helping with a fundraiser for the Twin Lakes Soccer Association complex's restroom facilities. Suzan explained that the BCFT's "mentor" has cautioned us not to become a charitable organization, by holding fundraisers and donating money to groups in town that are in need of support. Instead, he says we'd be better off just assisting the groups that need to raise money, by providing manpower (for fundraisers that they organize themselves) and other behind-the-scenes support. A list of potential fundraising ideas was shared with the group -- this list (plus any other ideas generated in the meantime) will be presented to the TLSA at a future date. Mr. Chodacki said that the BCFT needs to be looked at as a community "action" group as opposed to a community "activist" group -- "activist" carries a negative connotation. Roger Paul said that helping the TLSA get the restrooms built would give us good exposure in the press. Joanne Rodish asked how many kids were even in the TLSA, and said that it might not be worth getting involved if it was only for a few kids. Other members said that from their experience, there were hundreds of kids on the teams, and the tournaments draw in hundreds more.

Rob Welch pointed out that helping with a fundraiser for the TLSA isn't about soccer -- it's about the BCFT image. We need to do some positive things for the community to counter the defeat of the A&P Tax. Larry Shirley said that he highly recommends the group's involvement with this project, that it would be well worth our while. He and his wife are former soccer coaches, and have several years' experience with the TLSA. He offered to find us contact information for the soccer group. The soccer fields are currently maintained with volunteer labor. Vera Hughes said she thought we should seek out volunteer contractors to help with construction and reduce the cost even further. The suggestion was also made that we conduct a feasibility study before committing to any projects, and not spread ourselves too thin.

Discussion about a proposed fundraiser to purchase dive equipment for the Sheriff's Dept. was postponed for a future meeting.

What to do about the local press (specifically Thomas Garrett's treatment of the BCFT and others who opposed the A&P Tax)? Cancel subscriptions? Boycott? Write letters? Several asked for the address for the Gannett corporate offices, and that info will be sent out ASAP. Consensus was to write letters of complaint to the publisher, Betty Barker Smith, and send a copy to the Gannett HQ as well. Canceling subscriptions won't affect the paper as badly as negative publicity would.

Next, Frank said it was important for BCFT to keep attending City Council meetings, even now (especially now) that the election is over. They need to know that we're paying attention, and watching their every move, or things will go back to business as usual. John Beach said he thought it was more important to have people start going to the committee meetings. Suzan volunteered to find the schedule of all city committee meetings and send the info to the group ASAP. A calendar showing these meetings will be added to the BCFT web site in the near future.

Frank mentioned that we have been contacted by two groups (one in Hot Springs Village [Citizens for Fair Taxes] and one in Washington, DC [National Taxpayers Union]) about getting a "Taxpayers Bill of Rights" implemented in Arkansas. Lea Chodacki said she would like to see more information on the subject before making any decision. After a short discussion, it was agreed that we have enough to deal with locally without getting involved on a larger scale. Frank and Suzan will read through Colorado's TABOR, summarize it and distribute the info to the group. Subject will be brought up again at a later date.

Water department rate hike: The news that the MH water department is planning to raise rates in the near future has a lot of people upset. All agreed that this issue is very important, and worth trying to do something about. Lea Chodacki said she thinks this is a huge issue, bigger than any other we could address, and needs to be studied very thoroughly. Frank will obtain copies of the city's budgets and water department's budgets for the past 5 years. More next meeting.

We adjourned at 11:30 - next meeting will be Saturday, May 7 (location to be announced -- Redeemer isn't available that day).

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Suzan Kaye

Secretary, BCFT

424-6235