Troubles at our local YMCA
@thegreatdebater (7316)
United States
August 21, 2009 7:50pm CST
Recently, the governor of my state cut the funding for some early child care programs, and it forced some non-profit, and not-for-profit organizations to make changes. One organization was our local YMCA, which has two Y locations, and another Jewish center. They wanted to close one of the locations, and give it to a mega church in the area for parking. This opened up a HUGE can of worms when their finances came out. The base salary for the CEO of our YMCA is $270,357 a year making him the highest paid in the state. But it get much worse. While investigating this, our newspaper found $437,215 in travel and transportation, and $180,173 in "conferences, conventions, and meetings". Now about $4.4 million of this is taxpayer dollars at work. Would you be upset if this was happening in your city?
1 response
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
22 Aug 09
Wow, hell yeah I'd be upset! Isn't YMCA a non-profit that gets money from the government? Nearly half a million dollars on TRAVEL? Where the hell did he go?
1 person likes this
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
22 Aug 09
The CEO of our Y couldn't understand why the people were so upset. Last yeat they received $4.4 million in taxpayer dollars. He announced late last week that they will allow the location to stay open for three months. But, have to sell 500 three year memberships to that location only, or they will close the location and GIVE the location to the mega church. No one knows how they spent half a million in travel, but the CEO isn't talking about it either. There are only 5 members of the executive board of the Y, so that is a lot of travel for just a few people.
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
22 Aug 09
It is stunning how out of touch from reality some of the well heeled truly are, isn't it?
I don't know how exactly the Y is funded, but if they receive taxpayer money, would giving their property to the mega church go into some separation of church and state issue?
IF the church wants that property, they should have to BUY it like any other entity would. "Mega churches" generally aren't exactly "poor". Even the Catholic church has to pay actual money for their properties, that's why a lot of parishes have either shut down or consolidated with other parishes in recent years - to save money.
1 person likes this
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
22 Aug 09
Angry, the Y is funded almost 50/50 with taxpayer dollars and membership fees. I am not sure how they expected to just give this church this property, but I am sure that there was some kind of back door deal going on. This mega church has A LOT of money, they have built three or four locations in the last 5 years, and have thousands of people show up every Saturday, and Sunday.
