{"id":1891,"date":"2025-02-23T15:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T15:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=1891"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:06:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:06:05","slug":"state-funded-organizations-could-be-barred-from-making-political-contributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2025\/02\/23\/state-funded-organizations-could-be-barred-from-making-political-contributions\/","title":{"rendered":"State-funded organizations could be barred from making political contributions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.mn.gov\/members\/membersR.asp?id=Rep_Elliott_Engen\">Rep. Elliott Engen<\/a>&nbsp;(R-White Bear Township) believes there is a conflict of interest when a nonprofit or other organization receives state funding, then is allowed to donate that money as a political contribution to a friendly candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe bill before you today would simply ensure that the tax dollars received by nonprofit organizations are not being spent on influencing the outcome of elections, but rather, being used to benefit the public good,\u201d he told the House Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Engen sponsors&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.mn.gov\/bills\/billnum.asp?Billnumber=HF72&amp;ls_year=94&amp;session_year=2025&amp;session_number=0\">HF72<\/a>, which would prohibit any organization receiving state funding, including nonprofits, from making political contributions or expending money for a political purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bill was approved 6-5 on a party-line vote and sent to the House Floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Engen said the bill would return political influence in the state to voters rather than organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis bill would bring to heel a large portion of the unethical and irresponsible dark money campaign apparatus that voters on both the left and the right have agreed needs to end,\u201d Engen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.mn.gov\/members\/membersR.asp?id=Rep_Emma_Greenman\">Rep. Emma Greenman<\/a>&nbsp;(DFL-Mpls) said the bill would repeat laws already on the books because certain nonprofits already cannot make political contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe make grants to 501(c)(3)s; they\u2019re already prohibited from doing that by federal IRS law,\u201d she said. \u201cThey cannot spend money on elections. That\u2019s what makes you a tax-exempt charity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Engen countered that current law allows a 501(c)(3) to funnel state money to a third party to make a political donation, and the bill would end that practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is a little bit of a Catch-22,\u201d he said. &#8220;They\u2019ll use a different apparatus to continue that influencing of elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats unsuccessfully offered three amendments that would have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.mn.gov\/comm\/docs\/_9wSDLDez0KGNz-IxQ2LXA.pdf\">prohibited all corporations<\/a>\u00a0and any entity receiving a state tax deduction or tax credit from making political contributions;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.mn.gov\/comm\/docs\/JII1CeNKnkCtyA6UbslT2w.pdf\">removed the state funding language<\/a>\u00a0and make it illegal for any entity or organization to make a political contribution; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.mn.gov\/comm\/docs\/vGvXXyL-XkW8-EOCLrRdrA.pdf\">insured<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cany association, political committee or fund, person, political party, or political party unit who spends $10,000 or more in an election cycle segment on covered campaign spending or who accepts $10,000 or more in an election cycle segment of in-kind contributions\u201d would need to keep transfer records, allow donors to opt out of their donations being spent for political purposes, and make detailed donor reports to the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Elliott Engen&nbsp;(R-White Bear Township) believes there is a conflict of interest when a nonprofit or other organization receives state funding, then is allowed to donate that money as a political contribution to a friendly candidate. \u201cThe bill before you today would simply ensure that the tax dollars received by nonprofit organizations are not being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1033,1032,1034],"class_list":["post-1891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-government-operations-committee","tag-rep-elliott-engen","tag-rep-emma-greenman","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/State.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1892,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions\/1892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}