Taxpayers and the Mother Child Project both are intended to benefit through a tax credit program awarded to Emporia by the Kansas Department of Commerce. The deadline to receive tax credits for donations is Dec. 31.
A $140,000 maximum will be awarded in Kansas Community Service Tax Credits for the program, according to a news release from Sarah Riley-Hansen, executive director of Corner House Inc.
“Because they are 50-50 credits, the total benefit to Corner House is $280,000,” she said.
The program is similar to one that includes the William Allen White House State Historic Site through the Kansas State Historical Society’s tax credit offering.
A minimum donation of $250 is required to use the tax credits for the Mother Child Project, which must be used in a timely fashion to avoid the state reassigning the credits to other non-profit organizations in other communities, Riley-Hansen said.
“These credits are 50-50 credits, meaning that someone who makes a donation will receive at least 50 percent of their donation back,” she said. “Because the Kansas tax code is married to the federal tax code, most donors experience an effective rate of more than 60 percent for his or her donation. Some donors experience more than an 80 percent effective rate.”
The money will be used to finance the start of the Mother Child Project, intended to help mothers with dependent children fight alcohol and drug addictions. The project will renovate property at 422 Market St., just north of Corner House’s new treatment facility, and will serve Emporia and the seven-county area.
Riley-Hansen said the project will meet a vital need. More than 110 women with children in the service area needed inpatient substance abuse treatment in 2007.
“Our hope is to create an environment in which the woman may receive the treatment she needs while her children engage in prevention activities,” Riley-Hansen said. “... This project directly helps children who desperately need their drug-dependent mothers to recover.”
The house on Market Street was donated through a gift from the Trusler Foundation, she said; the tax credits will allow Corner House to remodel the building to serve the addicted mothers and the children.
For more information about the tax credits or to make a donation, call Riley-Hansen at 342-3015 or e-mail her at sarahr@cornerhouseinc.org.
The Kansas State Historical Society’s “Partnership Historic Sites Program” offers a 50 percent tax credit for donations from $1,000 to $5,000, according to Gazette files. A total of $200,000 has been set aside for all state historic sites, with $20,000 designated for the William Allen White House at 927 Exchange St.