City Has No Idea How Much In Public Funds Go To Non-Profits

We recently requested a list of all non-profit organizations to which the City of San Angelo has provided taxpayer funds during the last five years and in what amounts. The City responded that it does not track payments paid to non-profits so it cannot run a report to answer this question or otherwise provide this information. Instead they provided the City’s ledger detailing every payment made by the City for the last five years. This will take us some time to go through.

We appreciate staff’s effort to provide us what they do have. But with the recent concern expressed by the Mayor and some council members over public funds being provided to non-profit organizations in the North TIRZ because they do not pay taxes, this seems to be very bad oversight. The City should have a way of knowing this or finding this out. Council should want to know this as well when the issue of the North TIRZ non-profit policy is taken up again.

If taxpayer funds are being provided to non-profits to support their missions or endeavors, the public has a right to know how much is being provided and what non-profit organizations they are supporting. The issue has now been raised and the debate has been opened as to the proper use of city funds to support various organizations who do not pay taxes. Which ones should we provide public funds to? What is the public’s return on investment for those funds? What benefit does the general public get out of that use of public money? These are just a few of the questions we should ask as we enter this debate. This issue impacts not just small non-profit organizations, but large organizations that are deeply important to and an integral part of our community who have been receiving funds for years. This information is necessary to have an informed debate. City Council should request this information themselves.

We promised you a report on how much of your taxes are going to fund non-profit organizations, but it will take us some time to sort through the five years of ledger data provided and city budgets to get a better idea of what those numbers are. We will keep you updated on this developing story.