COLUMN: More to charity story

I read with interest Sholeh Patrick’s article, “Shocker? The rich donate the least.” Respectfully I disagree with Ms. Patrick’s article but that is because of the way she’s stated two assertions in one sentence — “Those who can afford to, give the least to charity.”

First, “those that can afford to” is assumed to mean that just because someone is in the top 20 percent of taxpayers that they have more disposable dollars. A tax return in 2009 with approximately $75,000 in adjusted gross income hit the top 20.6 percent of returns. Doesn’t consider family size, medical expenses, etc. nor the fact that the top 20 percent of taxpayers, have 73 percent of taxable income based on return data and pay 84 percent of the federal income taxes paid.

“Give the least” is a generalization and I often find this when dealing with taxpayers — retirees that have been good savers and modest philanthropists are “lost” in these statistics because they may be debt free and their donations never reach above the standard deduction threshold. The only data here is for those with itemized deductions and we lose a large part of the charitable givers based on looking at only this area.

I see so many successful people in this area giving to many groups that it defies description. I am proud to work in Coeur d’Alene everyday and associate with a diverse community that I seem to see as more cohesive than the author. Shame on The Press for yet another “us vs. them” article.

SUZANNE METZGER

Spokane Valley