National Organization for Marriage's 2007 Tax Return Leaked

Calls for the National Organization for Marriage's tax documents have gone unheeded by the anti-marriage equality group, despite the fact that law demands they, being a non-profit organization, keep their records public.

Justin McClachlan somehow got his hands on their 2007 tax return and posted it Sunday. He's just learned that this is an amended tax return, which raises more questions about the original. But here is the amended return below.

National Organization for Marriage

The document is pretty straight forward, but some questions have risen. McClachlan writes:

NOM says it paid Common Sense America $166,000 in the section where it has to list its top five contractors paid more than $50,000. But on a more detailed schedule, it said it paid $189,000 for a "consultant." That difference -- $23,000 -- could have gone to another contractor that NOM wouldn't have to list. I just wonder why they say "consultant" instead of "consultants" on the sheet if that total includes two different contractors. They do breakdown the amount they paid their graphic design firm on a separate line.

It didn't taken long for the questions to turn towards Common Sense America and who they are. Turns out it's a company ran by no other than NOM's own Executive Director Brian Brown.

No one really knows who Common Sense America is. Very little information is given on their website. But I have the same questions as McClachlan:

. . . [is NOM] giving lucrative contracts to organizations connected to its executive director, what the state of Common Sense America's finances are (especially without the NOM contract) and whether any self-dealing is going on. Bottom line, does Common Sense American pay Brown a salary?

I'm sure Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate will have a field day with this.