April 28, 2011; Source: Indystar.com | When is a nonprofit not a nonprofit? When it's the Tea Party of Indiana and it is requesting the city of Indianapolis to waive fees for closing off parking meters – a practice ironically known as bagging.
According to Indystar.com, the $450 fee for putting bags over 30 parking meters for an April 15 Tax Day Rally would have been waived if the Tea Party were a different kind of nonprofit. But in this case, a member of the Indianapolis Board of Public Works moved to deny the request during a regular meeting because of what he said was the group's "political status." Indystar.com reported that Denis Rosebrough persuaded his fellow board members that approving the Tea Party's waiver request would have set a precedent allowing other political parties to escape the bagging fees.
Sign up for our free newsletters
Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.
The request was rejected in a 5-0 vote. Just ahead of that vote, the board approved similar requests from several other groups including Habitat for Humanity, the Knights of Columbus event, and the Salvation Army.—Bruce Trachtenberg