Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs has been hyping his office’s Charitable Trust Grant program, as you can see in press like that linked here. Grants to small non-profits of up to $25,000 are available under the program.
Where, if you must ask, does that money come from?
Well, from non-profits themselves.
Yes, the money for the program comes from the filing fees charitable organizations must pay to incorporate with the State of Illinois.
As the Treasurer’s site itself says, “The program is funded by non-profits and exists to support non-profits.” Got it.
I suppose this isn’t really a big deal since the program has only funded about $3 million in total, but you should know that Treasurer Frerichs, who is so proud of the program, is also responsible for managing a stunning $35 billion of taxpayer money. To be fair, the General Assembly bears original blame for the program, which it authorized by statute in 2007. But as manager of the program, Frerichs clearly should be speaking up about the foolishness and asking lawmakers to let the program expire.
We’ll be writing shortly on something else Frerichs has been up to, which is far more grave.
-Mark Glennon
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
What’s even more funny about this Frerichs is that he is even despised by the commenters on CapFax. Mike recently had a Freudian slip and proposed taxing retirement income. That didn’t go well over there!
As my favorite regular commenter (snark) OW says, “ Mike stands tall for taxes”.
I’m not sure if OW is paid to troll CapFax all day or is retired and has nothing better to do.
How is that even legal?
Reminds me of Monty Python’s Dennis Moore
Great article! Headline should be “genius” FYI
This is just a small snippet of the bigger picture. Illinois takes from resident “A” and gives it to resident “B”. Next it has to determine how much to take from resident “B” to give to resident “A”. This is what liberals consider efficiency.
Haha. The scene from Elf comes to mind where Walter Hobbs, storied children’s author, has to bring in Miles Finch.
Keep up the good work IL!
Let me guess. He invested in a social equity program…