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Youth Empowerment Center News

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY - November 24, 2004 - Local charities say they may not have such a happy new year due to a change in tax law that will take effect Jan. 1. The new law will make donating vehicles to charities less beneficial to donors. That will likely result in a drastic reduction in the popular programs that bring millions to local groups that provide services for the poor, the homeless, abused women and others.

"We're expecting that we'll lose over $1 million in this program," said Mark Tsuchiya, a spokesman for Father Joe's Villages, a San Diego-based organization that provides education, job training, child care, medical and dental care and addiction counseling for homeless people.

Father Joe's Villages and other organizations, such as the nonprofit Jewish Family Services of San Diego, are running television ads countywide encouraging people to donate their cars before the end of the year.

Tsuchiya and representatives said the new rules will make vehicle donation programs less beneficial to taxpayers, but also more inconvenient.

Under the current rules, donors receive the "fair trade value" of the car as a deduction, which is the price that the car would sell for if it was sold to a buyer. The new rule will require donors to deduct only the price that the charities receive for the car.

Since many of the charities sell the cars at auctions, often the price is only a fraction of the car's estimated value. Donors also have to wait until the car is sold before they learn of their deduction, which could be months from the time of the donation, Tsuchiya said.

"It's going to be a big hassle that is going to discourage people from donating that car," he said.

Jim McLeod, of Temecula, agreed. He is looking to donate his 1994 Saturn.

The car needs a new speedometer and other repairs, he said. If he makes the repairs to sell it, he might just break even, and donating the car to charity would mean reducing the amount of taxes he pays.

If the new rules would be in effect now, he said he would rather sell the car on his own or simply junk it.

"It might be better than going through the hassle," he said.

That attitude worries some charity officials, such as the San Diego Blood Bank Foundation.

"We're disappointed and it's going to affect us," said Jackie Vella, the foundation's executive director. "We just don't know how much."

The foundation raises money to pay for the San Diego Blood Bank's programs. It collects and auctions about 500 donated cars each year, Vella said. Vehicle donations account for about 20 percent of the foundation's revenues, she said.

The potential drop in revenue comes at a time when many charities say they have been hard hit by the effects of a sluggish economy.

Moreover, some charities are upset that the new rules were included in a measure called the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, which gives $136 billion in new tax breaks for business interests.

The original purpose for the legislation was to repeal a $5 billion annual tax break for American exporters that was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization. Repeal of the tax break was needed to lift tariffs on manufactured and farm goods exported to Europe.

Instead, the bill became one of the most sweeping overhauls in corporate tax law in nearly two decades. Among the beneficiaries were farmers, fishermen, large corporations, NASCAR race-track owners, and bow and arrow hunters.

It was passed Oct. 7 by the House on a bipartisan vote of 280-141.

U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, said they lobbied to remove the provision regarding the vehicle donations rules after speaking with local charity officials but were unsuccessful.

Cunningham, Issa and Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, voted in favor of the measure.

"I ask that you remove this provision from the package and allow Congress to revisit this provision when Congress reconvenes in January," Cunningham wrote in a letter to Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Issa echoed Cunningham's concerns about the effect the new rules would have on charities, and said he was also worried about abuses to the program by people overestimating the value of their cars.

"Out of the $800 million that it cost the taxpayers, a substantial part of that was abuse," Issa said.

Closing the loophole is expected to save about $2.4 billion, according to estimates by the Ways and Means Committee.

Cunningham and Issa said they might be willing to reconsider the provision in a future tax cut measure. Issa said the new rules may have gone too far.

"The whole success of this program has not been inflated value (of vehicles), but in the ease of this program," Issa said. "It was the convenience factor that generated millions and millions for charity."

He added: "In the words of another president, they should have mended it not ended it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-5426 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.

Former Lynwood mayor helped others cope.

By Karen Robes
Staff writer

LYNWOOD - June 01, 2005 - John Stevens had a knack for helping others, especially troubled teens.
One night in 1971, a teenage girl being chased by female gang members sought refuge at Operation LINDA, or Local Information on Narcotics and Drug Abuse.

"'Get out of our way. We're going to beat her," the gang leader had told him.

But John, who founded and ran the Lynwood-based office, refused to move. They had two choices, the former Lynwood councilman and mayor told them: Try and risk arrest, or talk it out.

They not only chose to settle the problem through talking; they came back the next morning to seek family counseling.

John, who died May 29 at 81, spent the much of his life helping others cope with their problems as a parole officer for the California Youth Authority in the Los Angeles and Long Beach areas, as a narcotics expert for the governor-appointed "Narcotic Addict Evaluation Board' and as director of Operation LINDA.

It was the way he approached people, said John's wife, Juanita.

"He never met a person he didn't like," she said. "We'd be in line at the market and he'd turn and say, 'Hey, would you like to hear a funny story?" He was an outgoing, generous person who always wanted to help people."

He was born on Nov. 1, 1923, San Diego. At 19, he fought for the U.S. Marine Corps II Division 6th Marines. He qualified as Expert Riflemen in the Marines and received a letter of citation from President Roosevelt.

After being honorably discharged in April 1945, he met Juanita by chance at a party.

She remembered the party and how they were one guy shy of an even number of men and women. A friend flipped through his phone book, dialed John's number and invited him over.

"I answered the door when he knocked," she recalled. "He liked telling everyone it was love at first sight."

John attended Compton College, then California Baptist Theological and Seminary for his bachelor's degree. He was two units away from earning his masters degree before he began working as an officer.

He spread his vast knowledge in dealing with drug abusers to cities that invited him to speak and in a pamphlet he published. He also penned an unpublished book, "On My Case," which includes stories of his experiences as a parole officer and board member.

After retiring in 1973, John and Juanita moved to Wrightwood and started a yard-and home-care business. In 1999, they moved to to be near their children in Sandpoint, Idaho, where they spent his remaining years.

"He was a good man," Juanita said. "A good example to his family and to others."

John is survived by wife Juanita; sister Lorraine (Fred) Curtis; sister-in-law Amy Stevens; daughter Laurie Stevens-Riffel; son Jeff (Katsa) Stevens; 11 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother, Edward Miles Stevens.

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