Blinding Flash of Epiphany
By Mitch Berg
The Strib discovers that people of faith have a philanthropic streak:
In the 1990s, many Minnesotans discovered they didn’t have to be rich to give away money through a community foundation that focused on their hometown.
More recently, they’ve discovered they can do the same through a foundation that focuses on their faith.
The piece gives some good details on charitable giving.
But I think the most interesting part is right here:
Much of the growth in Minnesota and across the nation has been spurred by an intergenerational transfer of wealth, an increase in planned giving and more knowledge by donors, said Eli Skora, executive director of the United Jewish Fund and Council in St. Paul. Gains in the stock market also have been a factor.
Of course, one of the DFL’s big saws has been that repealing or reforming estate taxes – taxes on the money people leave behind when they die – are a sop to the “very wealthy” (which, translated from DFLspeak, means “successful middle-class”). As more Americans own homes and get into equity investments, more and more qualify as “wealthy” enough to get socked with severe estate taxes.
This, of course, is something the “Happy to Bend Over for the Budget Pay For a “Better” Minnesota” crowd sees as cash on the hoof, ripe for the taxing.
