From the Treasurer

By Al Shadbourne —

To aid in the understanding of the PV Dems Treasurer Reports, the following are my answers to the most asked questions:

1. What are ActBlue Fees?   ActBlue is a non-profit organization that provides a service to Democratic candidates and organizations for collecting contributions via credit cards. They charge 3.95% for the service they provide.  It is a convenience for our membership, but I personally make all my contributions by personal check to avoid the ActBlue cost to our organization.
2. Why weren’t our checks to the Arizona candidates Hobbs and Mayes, cashed?  I have no way of knowing why they were not cashed but one possibility might be that they thought the amounts were too small ($100 each) to bother with, given the overall cost of their campaigns. Hobbs alone collected over $9,000,000 in donations towards her election. This was not the first time we have had candidates leave our donation checks uncashed.  When Warnock first made his run for office, we sent his campaign a $500 check which was never cashed.
3. Why did we spend $450 for the PV Street Fair?  Most of our organization’s income comes from membership dues which means our ability to pay our overhead expenses, like meeting room rental fees, and make donations to Democratic candidates and causes is dependent on our ability to attract people to our membership rolls.  Having a booth at the PV Street  Fair provides us an opportunity to introduce our organization to the PV citizenry.  The fair is managed by the PVP Chamber of Commerce; they charge $450 for a booth position.
4. Why are we paying for State and Federal reporting services?  Our organization is classified as a PAC (Political Action Committee).  As such we are required to file a several reports to the state and federal governments.  To ensure that all the required reports are filed correctly and on time we employ a firm named Crummitt & Associates to prepare and file all of them in our name.  Additionally, they provide an advisory service to your treasurer whenever I have a legal question about our expenses or income.  Our annual budget for their services typically runs between six and eight hundred dollars.  The cost varies primarily due to the number of reports they must prepare, which changes every year.

A final comment – Now is a great time to make your dues payment for the current membership year, because all dues received in April or May will cover your dues not only for 2022-23, but also for 2023-24.  Become a new member now and get two extra months FREE.

Here is the PV Dems February Treasurer’s Report from Treasurer Al Shadbourne: