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The Commonwealth Competition Council has established a taskforce to study the ongoing or permanent commercial activities of not-for-profit organizations and the effects of such activities on business and state revenues (SJR219 2000 Virginia General Assembly).

Commercial businesses across Virginia and the US are experiencing increased direct competition from non-profit, tax exempt organizations. Everything from child care services, printing, health club services, banking, telecommunications, transportation and more are losing business and revenue to tax exempt providers. Likewise, the government at all levels loses revenue in the multi-million dollar arena, billions on a national scale.
In one interesting court case a judge ruled that the activities of a YMCA be examined floor by floor, room by room, office by office to determine to what extent that protion of the facility was being used to further the "charitable" mission of the Y. As a result, that Y was required to pay taxes proportionately.
More to come!

Churches and Religous organizations: Did you know that a church or religous organization can open a child care center in Virginia without a license? Its true. Chapter 10, section 63 of the Code of Virginia allows churches and religous organizations an exemption from the license requirements that all other child care centers must comply with. That means that the religous child care facilties are tax exempt and exempt from state regulations as well. Does this sound fair to you?

It would seem that Virginia should try to emulate the Kentucky Fried Chicken child care of other proprietary childrens' service. The truth, the brutal truth, is that child care is expensive. The value of for-profit care is that it sucks up a market of rich parents, which is a dubious value at best. The problem for low and moderate income parents is how to afford the $200 or so a week day care requires. Usually, the value of a discounted service more than equals any cost to state or local government of providing or subsidizing a for-profit alternative. While that is not universal - and we can always point to wealthy hospitals and universities - it is far more common, particularly among faith-based social service providers.

Ironically, this whole argument relies on two right wing rhetorical themes at loggerheads: the value of faith based services, demanding public funds to places like bible schools; and the merit of a free market, ignoring the social value a human service provides and the need for some public support to compensate for that value. It's hard to pick through these absurd polarities to identify a reasonable balance where some services, like child care or AA meetings, merit public support while others, like creationism instruction and pentacostal healing, are more appropriate for private charity.