Dear Editor:

While contesting little Coastal Maine Botanical Garden's right to non-profit status, let’s also make a case against some hugely profitable activities going on at three well-known non-profits operating nationwide.

One could easily argue, for example, that the American Automobile Association (AAA) is really an insurance agency that uses its membership to identify a population of excellent prospects for insurance and cruise sales. Or that the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) actively partners with insurance providers for the lucrative purpose of receiving royalties or commissions when one of its members buys something from one of them (example, my Medicare Advantage plan is AARP branded ). Or that Planned Parenthood (PP), which receives five hundred million dollars of state and federal taxpayer money to provide health services unique to women, also uses its clientele list to identify excellent prospects for its main activity, which is performing more that three hundred thousand abortions per year, bringing in tens of millions of dollars at seven hundred dollars per abortion.

Whether we taxpayers agree or not, even the wealthiest non-profits pay no taxes as long as they refrain from distributing their revenues to owners in the form of dividends, and are entirely free to use whatever funds are available to perpetuate, improve, and grow their enterprises, even if the enterprise employs tens of thousands of well-paid workers and executives, such as Harvard University (a famous non-profit with a $36 billion endowment, and a 2013 CEO annual salary of $899,734).

As a taxpaying abutter of CMBG, may I say that I love everything about the place, with one small reservation: as far as I know, they have not publicly commented on the proposed roundabout, either for or against. Do they fear what many of their wealthy benefactors might do, or not do?

Phil Molvar

Southport