A Few Bad Apples

Once again, the few bad apples giving the rest of us a black eye that may end up denying needed services and valuable quality of life to children and elderly with severe disabilities, as well as driving up costs to taxpayers because we don’t like being taken advantage of.   This article exposes a handful of NY based non-profits making millions off of the disabled while paying in-home providers $10/hour and collecting as much as $67/hour from Medicaid. One of the non-profits profiled retained surplus cash last year of $2.7 million out of less than $10 million in services billed.

In contrast, let me explain the law. That type of non-profit is not allowed to retain surpluses if they claim tax exempt status (which they did). They must immediately reinvest that money in OTHER public charities at the end of the tax year. Furthermore, AFFI is a public charity. We CAN retain surpluses, but we have never ended a fiscal year with more than $1,000 in the bank and do not pay a single employee.  We staff our administrative functions with volunteers, mostly from the board of directors and technical advisory board.

I despise people and organizations who try to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor, sick, and disabled!  Making a reasonable living is fine and noble if you provide valuable goods and services at a fair price.  But these types of predators are thieves and robbers who jeopardize everything for millions of needy people.