A Fair Poll? Maybe Not
The Florida Bankers Association hires The Harris Poll to conduct a survey on the CU tax exemption for large credit unions.
But they aren’t always, apparently.
The Florida Bankers Association hired the pollsters at The Harris Poll to conduct an online survey of support for the credit union tax exemption for large credit unions.
To no one’s surprise, the banking group’s poll reported widespread opposition to the tax exemption for “mega credit unions.”
Now, the first newspaper I worked for used to run Harris Polls. But we couldn’t afford to hire Harris pollsters to gauge public opinion in the mid-sized Indiana community where the newspaper was located.
So we did the next best thing. We called everyone in the phonebook named Harris.
We had to stop that practice when the folks with that common last name objected to being bothered by another stupid (at least according to them) poll.
So we chose another last name and on we charged.
But flawed as they were, those polls may have been fairer than the bankers’ Harris Poll.
The poll set the stage with a statement that says there are small, local credit unions with assets under $500 million, and then there are “mega credit unions” with more than $500 million in assets.
“Credit unions now serve a wide variety of people, including high-income, and offer many of the same financial products and services as tax-paying banks,” the statement continued.
Some say the tax exemption is good because it allows credit unions to provide services to members, the bankers admitted.
“Others say that the credit union tax exemption is bad because today’s credit unions have expanded their financial services beyond their original purpose, which was why they were not required to pay taxes in the first place,” the poll stated.
Then, and only then, came the questions.
Some 68% of those polled said it is unfair that mega credit unions do not have to pay state and federal income taxes.
Sixty-nine percent of those polled said it is unfair that mega credit unions share the same tax exemption as other not-for-profit organizations.
And 70% said they would support requiring mega credit unions to pay federal and state income taxes.
The poll went on to measure support for local and community banks.
And then came the kicker – 75% of those responding supported the statement: “Mega credit unions that don’t pay federal and state income taxes should not be allowed to buy out local community banks who do pay federal and state income taxes.”
The poll surveyed 2,000 adults – 1,600 of whom were registered voters – online between Sept. 26 and Sep. 30.
But given the questions, it probably wouldn’t matter if the poll surveyed 600,000 people.
The results probably would have been the same.
Mystery Video
The White House recently posted on Twitter a video of NCUA Chairman Rodney Hood voicing his support for President Trump.
“I’m particularly pleased that this president has done more for African Americans than any other president in my lifetime,” Hood, who is black, said in a short presentation.
He went on to say that more African American families are seeing an increase in their net worth.
Now, the comments on Twitter about the video were brutal and unfair, and personally attacked Hood. There’s no need to provide more details about those comments here.
The response of the credit union community was more muted, with some people saying it is unprecedented for a member of the NCUA board to be so vocal in his support of the president.
Others said the chairmanship of the NCUA is a political position and a chairman could be expected to be supportive of the man who nominated him. They said former members of the board were also politically active.
The NCUA refused to provide more details about the video, including when it was filmed.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Huh?
Conservative commentator Laura Ingraham came up with a novel argument for why Republicans should oppose marijuana banking legislation.
Ingraham recently tweeted that the proposed legislation would “free up millions of ‘legalized’ pot dollars to be donated to Dems who want to defeat Senate Republicans in 2020. Bad idea.”
That’s funny. The American Bankers Association gives most of its money to Republicans and they’re among the most vocal advocates of the bill. And bankers, by and large, are pretty conservative people.
Sen. Corey Gardner (R-Colo.), who is from a state where marijuana is legal, is among the most vocal cosponsors of the bill. He’s in a tough reelection campaign and analysts have said his support for the marijuana banking legislation may well help his reelection efforts.
Now Ingraham may be thinking about long-haired hippies who wear peace symbols and spend most of their days high.
When was the last time you saw one of those folks?
And Yet Again
Earlier this month, a pro-Trump group held a conference at Trump National Doral Miami.
During the conference, attendees were shown a trumped-up video of the president walking into the “Church of Fake News” and opening fire on people who have the faces of his critics or their news organization.
Now, the administration has denounced the video. However, the president continues to refer to journalists as enemies of the people.
But once again, the video is evidence of how President Trump’s supporters react to his charged-up rhetoric in denouncing legitimate news organizations.
And I’ve said it before: Someone is going to get hurt.
Ironically, the people attending the conference no doubt would call themselves “real Americans.”
Yet repeatedly, they demonstrate that they have no respect for the United States Constitution –except maybe the Second Amendment.
David Baumann is a correspondent-at-large for CU Times. He can be reached at dbaumann@cutimes.com.