Panel on Civic Renewal Adds Another Voice to Calls for Tax Incentives to Promote Giving

A growing chorus of politicians, scholars, and non-profit officials are calling on Congress to pass new tax incentives to encourage Americans to increase their gifts to charities.

The most recent voices to weigh in: William J. Bennett, a Republican who served as Secretary of Education in the Reagan Administration, and former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn. The two serve as co-chairs of the National Commission on Civic Renewal, which has just released its recommendations on ways to persuade more Americans to work together to solve social problems.

The report is the latest in a steady stream of publications that identify charitable organizations as key players in fixing the country’s problems.

The Council on Civil Society, whose members include Senators Daniel R. Coats and Joseph I. Lieberman, recently published similar recommendations, including a call for a federal tax credit for people who give to antipoverty groups.

William A. Galston, executive director of the National Commission on Civic Renewal — and a contributor to the Council on Civil Society — says one aim of the report is to help spark “a very active discussion in Congress as to the best ways of promoting increased charitable contributions.”

The commission delivered copies of the report to every U.S. Representative and Senator and to Clinton Administration officials.

The report stops short of recommending specific charity tax credits or changes in the current tax deduction for donations. “We in the commission didn’t feel that we had the expertise to recommend a specific provision,” says Mr. Galston. He says members of the commission want to be sure that whatever changes are made encourage new donations, rather than simply reward people for gifts that they would have been inclined to make without new incentives.

Several proposals are currently pending in Congress, although their chances for passage during this legislative session are thought to be slim.

Among them:

* A measure introduced by Senator Coats would allow states to use federal welfare money to offset the cost of offering their residents charity tax credits. The credits would be worth up to $250 for donors who give to charities that work to prevent or reduce poverty.

* A bipartisan group of more than 60 members of the House has introduced legislation that would provide a limited version of the charitable tax deduction for many of the estimated 84 million people who currently cannot receive such a break for their donations because they do not itemize on their tax returns. A similar bill, introduced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, is pending in the Senate.

To order a free copy of the report, A Nation of Spectators: How Civic Disengagement Weakens America and What We Can Do About It, contact the National Commission on Civic Renewal, 3111 van Munching Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, Md. 20742; (301) 405-2790. Or go to the commission’s World-Wide Web site, http://www.puaf.umd.edu/civicrenewal.