Did Republicans give a Half Million Dollars of taxpayer money to United Sportsmen after they misrepresented their tax exempt status?

Lobbyist front group United Sportsmen may have lied about Tax exempt status for $500,000 of taxpayer money, a violation of law.

So what’s new. Still more money mismanagement from our Republican legislature, this time awarding a half million bucks to a group of right wing lobbyist tied to the Koch Brothers, who lied about their tax status. Don’t Republicans ever ask any questions, do any research or have any business sense at all?

Apparently not. Like the paramilitary groups brought in from Arizona who didn't have any of the required licenses for their weapons, now the DNR is awarding political cronies taxpayer money despite no proof of their 501(c)(3) status. That’s how things look now, which is how it would have looked had Republican sugar daddies asked the completely unqualified United Sportsmen a few questions.

jsonline-Jason Stein/Michael Phillis: State and federal registries have no record of a group that claimed federal nonprofit status in winning a controversial grant to promote hunting and fishing, a Journal Sentinel review has found … United Sportsmen presented itself as having a designation as a federal 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Neither the IRS website, an official state registry of charitable groups, nor the popular private website GuideStar have any record of that status being given to either the United Sportsmen foundation or an affiliate group.

Since Thursday, the Journal Sentinel has made repeated requests to United Sportsmen's board president to provide the federal Internal Revenue Service letter determining it qualifies as a federal nonprofit. The federal tax code prohibits false claims of 501(c)(3) status and requires groups claiming it to produce their IRS determination letter on request, according to the federal agency. Groups still waiting on an IRS determination typically present themselves as seeking that status, not as having it.

State DNR spokesman Bill Cosh declined comment on whether the DNR had concerns about any possible misrepresentation by United Sportsmen about having received the federal designation. 

Scot Ross, executive of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, said United Sportsmen's tax-exempt status still needed to be cleared up. "It raises serious concerns about the legitimacy of the organization and even larger concerns about the elected officials who spearheaded this half-million-dollar earmark," Ross said.