Keller: Trump administration's claim of bureaucratic waste doesn't hold up at JFK Library
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.
The Trump administration says it's going after bureaucratic waste with its recent wave of firings. "If we don't do something about the deficit, the country's going bankrupt," said firer-in-chief Elon Musk.
Probationary workers fired
But did they hit the target when they shut down the Kennedy Library in Dorchester Tuesday by letting key public-facing employees go?
We took a close look at the JFK Library Foundation's finances as reported in its most recent IRS 990 filings. And here's what we found:
They don't have to report the names of their donors, but the foundation reported six employees making over $100,000 a year, with Executive Director Rachel Flor pulling down $422,000 in salary and benefits. In total, she and the other top earners made $1.5 million total last year, accounting for 11% of the foundation's net assets.
That's just above the Better Business Bureau's recommended standard of 10%.
Those executives aren't government employees and thus out of Musk's reach, so it was low-paid probationary workers who were canned, notes unpaid board member Stephen Kennedy Smith.
"They generate a net surplus for the federal government so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to fire the people who are generating revenue for the organization," he told CNN.
High rating from watchdog group
The foundation reports spending $594,000 on fundraising last year, bringing in nearly $30 million, 70% of it from private donors. That's a 2% ratio of money spent versus money raised, well below the Better Business Bureau standard of a 35% ratio. No wonder the Kennedy Library Foundation earned a four-star, 93% rating from watchdog group Charity Navigator.
"This isn't about saving money, obviously, because they're not saving money by doing these things," said Smith.
The White House has rescinded some recent cuts which they concede were made in error. No word on whether or not this will happen here, but can they make a case this was wasteful spending?
If they want to claim that presidential libraries and museums are an unaffordable frill with our deficit running so high, that's one thing. It'll be interesting to see if an edict like that brings fundraising for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library to a halt as well.
But if the claim is that the folks at the Kennedy Library were mismanaging or squandering public funds, that is directly contradicted by the numbers.
