Return-Path: <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g1EKQ0u03153; Thu, 14 Feb 2002 15:26:00 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 15:26:00 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020214122151.00a0d1f0@mail.aracnet.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Sylvan Rainwater <sylvan@cccchs.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:763] Re: Use of Public Property X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Status: O Content-Length: 1396 Lines: 27 At 04:09 PM 02/12/2002 -0500, Don Seaman wrote: ><SNIP> I don't know about other states, but in Texas, it's against the law >to use public property to advocate political causes and when you advocate >contacting legislators for any reason, you are definitely advocating >something political. <SNIP> It may be political in some sense, but that doesn't mean it's illegal. For example, we sometimes request legislators to come visit our program for mutual education -- it's good civics education for our students and it's good education information for the legislators. Certainly there is a political purpose included in such a visit, but there are other purposes as well, and they may be more important than the immediate political purpose. It's also true that many of us work for nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations. My understanding of laws relating to political activity on the part of such organizations is that it can't be more that a small percentage (5% comes to mind) of the total budget of the organization. This gives us some leeway. As mentioned above, you can also combine purposes, and emphasize the "non-political" (if there is such a thing) purpose of an event or action. ------------------------------ Sylvan Rainwater . sylvan@cccchs.org Adult Education Teacher and Family Literacy Program Manager Clackamas County Children's Commission . Oregon City, OR USA
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