From the Associated Press

Conservative Group Hits Teachers Union



By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The government should start a criminal investigation into the nation's largest teachers union to see whether the organization improperly used dues money to influence elections, a conservative law firm says.
 
The National Education Association denied any wrongdoing. Landmark Legal Foundation said Thursday it reviewed thousands of pages of NEA records documenting political activities that were not reported to the government — and should have triggered tax payments. The complaints filed with the Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) and Justice Department (news - web sites) alleged the union spent tens of millions of dollars from member tax-exempt dues. Richard Wilkof, an NEA attorney, said, "In the past, what Landmark has done is make gross misrepresentations of fact and lifted statements badly out of context. We feel there was nothing wrong with our activities in the past and we continue to feel that way." Landmark in 2000 sought an IRS audit of the tax-exempt union but Wilkof said none was conducted. Mark Levin, president of Herndon, Va.-based Landmark, said, "The complaints we filed today show, in meticulous detail, how the nation's largest, most powerful and most political union has flagrantly ignored its tax obligations." Under the tax code, unions cannot use dues money to influence the election or defeat of any candidate. Contributions to candidates and parties are supposed to be made by separate political action committees. The complaints quoted from a newspaper article this year that said Randall J. Moody, the NEA's federal policy manager, told political workshops at the union's 2003 convention: "Politics move our policy. We work through UniServ." UniServ is NEA's network of representatives who provide services to the local affiliates. Wilkof denied Landmark's contention that UniServ is really a network of political operatives, and said that Moody denies making the comment about UniServ. Patti Reid, a spokeswoman for the IRS criminal division, said she could not comment on the complaint.