Buffalo diocese sues to get 1.7 million dollar SBA loan through COVID-19 relief program

[Donkey]

Beyond that, dioceses have jobs that cannot be adequately done by volunteers.

Given the current deterioration that we are in, volunteers will be serving in most cases. By the Grace of God, they will not only suffice but excel.

 

[dochawk]

They were denied the loan because they’d filed for bankruptcy due to all the child sex abuse judgments.

speaking as a bankruptcy lawyer . . . yes, bankruptcy is an absolute bar to receiving funds under these programs. No exceptions.

It has nothing to do with being a church, or why they filed bankruptcy.

I don’t recall offhand if the bankruptcy requirement is in the statute or rules but the standard for challenging rules is “abuse of discretion.”

I can’t really see that barring the bankrupt from a taxpayer funded loan is going to meet that standard. “unfair”, “bad idea”, and the like are not grounds for striking it down.

To me as an outsider, this system where an entity not paying certain taxes still can apply for funds from the same collective tax pile as the enteties who are forced to pay the same taxes, does not really make sense.

These programs at the moment are entirely about the employment and the paychecks. Particularly, paychecks and rent are the “forgivable” portions of the loans. It’s not about Acme, Inc. surviving but about preserving the jobs at Acme through a historically bizarre “blip.”

Switching to my economic professor hat, this recession is unique, in the literal sense of the word. the problem in a recession is that we don’t have workers and jobs to connect to produce something that can then be sold. This time, we have employers and employees lined up from one another across the social distance, and others waiting to buy the product. We just need to keep all these available until we can get back within social distance. If that falls apart, we’re at Great Depression levels.

[and don’t say “Great Recession” for the that stuff a decade or so ago. it was a garden variety recession, but a large portion of the population at the time had never seen a real recession, as we hadn’t had one since 1972 . . . {the Bush and Clinton “recessions” were more “breathers” in the 30 year Reagan expansion}])

Anyway, if we pull out of this in a clean way, both Congress and the administration will have a truly historical achievement.

That said (and possibly the biggest threat to it), the extra $600 a week for unemployment hast to be high on the list of the 10 most crack-headed things Congress has ever done. Not capping benefits at a person’s regular payroll (which was purely political) is already slowing people from returning to work ,. .

The reason why churches don’t pay taxes in USA is the same reason as why nonprofits don’t pay taxes.

in fact, even if they did pay income taxes, they wouldn’t pay much, as most are operating at break-even, anyway. (property taxes are another issue).

Those people furloughed from their diocese can collect unemployment like everyone else.

Not necessarily; in some states, such as Nevada, they are outside of the UI system. At the moment, my wife and daughter are both laid off off from the church pre-school (at volunteer wages to start), and ineligible.)

 

[Donkey]

Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut Dochawk.
I want to add that the many, many people on the Church payroll was never what the spirit of Vatican II had in mind.
IMO…notice…IMO…many of these hired workers have been deployed as deflection. There has been a level of hiding and manmade oppression attached to money/pay. The Holy Spirit has never been able to move around in such a climate. Maybe it has taken a time such as this to really shake out the Church rug.

Where the Church volunteer dominates you will see the Holy Spirit moving. Where the spirit of money, checks and balances dominates…stagnation.

Praying that the full intention of Vatican II is finally and completely free to move about.