An ethics watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. recently requested the Internal Revenue Service investigate a nonprofit organization near Bozeman.
Campaign for Accountability brands itself as a nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life.
Last week, it alleged that Citizens for Balanced Use, a group that advocates for motorized vehicle use on public land and more forest management, violated its tax-exempt status with "substantial" and unreported lobbying from 2015 to 2017.
CfA’s Executive Director Daniel Stevens says his team found a big discrepancy between what CBU was doing and what it reported to the IRS.
“You know, this is a pretty simple one. Their tax forms just don’t match up with what they do and their lobbying activity,” Stevens says.
He says some of those activities include encouraging members and the public to contact state and federal officials about policies and regulations, testifying before lawmakers at legislative sessions and organizing luncheons for lawmakers.
According to the IRS, attempting to influence legislation is considered lobbying. The IRS says organizations may engage in some lobbying, but too much lobbying activity risks loss of tax-exempt status.
Stevens says an organization must complete a Schedule C form if it participates in political and lobbying activity, which he says CBU did not do.
Kerry White, a representative in the Montana Legislature and CBU’s executive director, says his organization didn’t violate federal tax laws and this is all propaganda.
“When we set up our 501 (c)(3), we are allowed to spend 20 percent of our gross income over the year in lobbying expense,” White says.
He says volunteers do the majority of CBU’s lobbying, except when a lobbyist is hired for four months during the legislative session.
Records from the Commissioner of Political Practices show White’s organization paid $4,000 to lobbyist Bob Gilbert for the 2015 legislative session and several thousand to James E. Brown for the session in 2017.
I asked if CBU sends out newsletters or releases social media posts encouraging people to contact legislators.
“I don’t know, Rachel, you’d have to look at our publications and make your own judgement. We provide information to the public that’s all we do, educational information,” White says.
He says it’s up to them to decide what to do with it.
The organization’s website states "CBU engages with state and federal legislators to create and support policies beneficial to multiple use management of our public lands.”
Jayson O’Neill is deputy director with the Western Values Project, a non-profit watchdog organization in Montana. He says it doesn’t matter whether people are volunteers or paid. He says CBU’s actions are still considered lobbying by the IRS and in violation of its tax-exempt status.
He says his group notified Campaign for Accountability about CBU.
“With this complaint we’re hoping the IRS and Montana Commission for Political Practices takes a good hard look at Citizens for Balanced Use,” O’Neill says.
Western Values Project and Campaign for Accountability do not know how long it will take to hear back from the IRS.