Are private donations to government ever OK?

Posted: September 19, 2011

A FEW WEEKS AGO, Mayor Nutter publicly condoned a plan for the School Reform Commission to buy out Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's contract partly with money raised from anonymous private donors. Then, last week, the Inquirer reported the Nutter administration had refused anti-obesity programming worth millions of dollars from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia because the funds came from a grant from the American Beverage Association.

On Twitter, Nutter said:

Taking money from Big Soda to fight obesity is like taking money from the NRA to fight guns. You can't buy this City Hall.

But, wait: Which is it? Can the government take money from private sources, or does that constitute "buying City Hall"?

On this week's It's Our Money podcast, Doron Taussig and Daily News Editorial Page Editor Sandra Shea discuss whether it's appropriate for the government to accept private donations - and if so, when. Certainly the city doesn't want to reject all such offers: It can use the money. But these arrangements also raise the question of what the donor expects in return.

To listen, and for more on city government, go to www.ourmoneyphilly.com.

It's Our Money is a joint project of the Daily News and WHYY, funded by the William Penn Foundation, that works to shed light on where your tax dollars are going.

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