Want public money? Play by the rules.

There was quite a flap this week about whether the City of Portland is going to dole out the $5 million or so it once promised to an outfit called "Reimagine Oregon" to promote "equity" by some unspecified means. The pledge was made back when we were all in a tizzy over the murder of George Floyd, but the "Reimaginers" and the city still have not gotten their acts together to get the money spent, after nearly three years.

The other day, city commissioner Mingus Mapps had a couple of his colleagues convinced that the grant should be yanked, but the resulting uproar was enough to convince spineless dandy Dan Ryan to change his mind and keep the money spigot open. Of course, the council's "equity" queen, Carmen "Chainsaw" Rubio, was screaming the loudest about how racist was the thought of not distributing the millions for burning.

I'm with Mapps. That money should not be handed out to Reimagine Oregon, at least not in its current condition. But my reasoning may be a bit different from his.

Here's my gripe: As far as anyone can tell, Reimagine Oregon doesn't even exist. It's not a corporation, limited partnership, or limited liability company registered with the Oregon Secretary of State. It's not a tax-exempt nonprofit organization registered with the IRS. It's not a charity registered with the Oregon Department of Justice. Look it up; you won't find it anywhere.

At best, it's an informal general partnership among some unnamed individuals or organizations. The general  public knows nothing about its finances, and as best I can tell, it's never disclosed anything about its income or spending to the IRS, the Oregon Department of Revenue, or the Oregon DOJ.

You see this all the time with the many, many flaky "organizations" (if you can even call them that) to which tax dollars are handed out in and around Portland. They don't even make an effort to cut square corners with the government, the way the rest of us are required to.

The City of Portland – and for that matter, the state, the counties, and all the unsupervised pots of money around here, like the Port, Tri-Met, Metro, OHSU, and the like – need to adopt and enforce the simple rule that in order to get grants, you have to be in full compliance with all the state and federal rules regarding nonprofit organizations. You need to form an actual entity, get it approved for tax exemption by the IRS, and file all required periodic reports with the federal and state governments. No compliance, no grant. 

It's not complicated. And it's not asking too much. 

If you ran your life the way these nonprofits play the public money game, you would be in prison.