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articles & updates | article
Ethics Plenary Speech
by Stephen J. Small, Esq.
Now let's try some harder questions.
How many of you have read Section 170(h) of the tax code, before you came to Rally?
How many of you have read the income tax regulations under Section 170(h) of the tax code?
How many of you have read The Conservation Easement Handbook?
How many of you have read LTA's Standards and Practices?
How many of you have read Preserving Family Lands?
How many of you have read my book The Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements?
You know what? My friends . . . my friends . . . we need to work harder. Let's talk about ethics. Let's talk about doing the right thing. Let's talk about making the right decisions. Let's talk about having high standards and taking the high road. How on earth can we get it right, and how on earth can we expect others to get it right, if we don't even know the rules????? Have we been doing a good job policing ourselves if we don't even know the rules???? Has LTA been doing a good enough job urging us to do better if we don't even take the time to read the basic literature in the field????
Folks, don't get me wrong. The private land protection business in this country is populated with good, honest, decent, highly ethical people who are always - in my experience always - trying to do the right thing. But friends a lot of you are not doing your homework, a lot of are not as prepared as I think you need to be, a lot of you think we're still in those lazy hazy crazy days of a long pleasant summer.
I'll come back to all of this in a few minutes.
I had a list of abuses I wanted to talk about, like conservation easements that allow too much building, but given the limited amount of time at this Plenary lunch, I want to skip the abuses and get to my comments about how to deal with them.
I said earlier that not only are people getting bad information, they are not getting good information. Remember those questions I asked about ten minutes ago? How many of you have read Section 170(h)? How many of you have read The Conservation Easement Handbook? How on earth can we have an educated consumer, educated landowners, educated local attorneys and accountants, educated appraisers, if we aren't educated ourselves? How many of you put on programs for landowners? How many of you put on programs for attorneys and appraisers? We can't necessarily shut down the people who are promoting the bad deals, but we can educate the consumer. First we need to understand the rules, then we need to do the outreach, and here is a 12-point plan.
Twelve things land trusts can and should do. By the way, these things should go without saying but I'm going to say them anyway.
First, first and foremost, do your homework. We had this discussion earlier. Be prepared. Read the tax code. Read the regulations. Read the literature. Do your homework. By the way, as Connie Small said to me earlier - Connie Small, who has been to more Rallies than most people in this room and who has been to more of my speeches than anyone else in this room, and who has been by my side for 31 years and who has supported me in this work for decades now - Connie Small - as Connie Small said to me this past week, "Stephen, you know it is not enough to tell them they need to do the work. If that's all you tell them most of them won't do the work." And she's right as usual and I'll come back to this point in a few minutes.
And by the way, I'm hardly suggesting that land trust people don't work hard. In fact, it has always been my experience that this is an enormously hard-working group of people. A few years ago, I was the guest speaker at the annual dinner of the Little Traverse Conservancy, in upper Michigan, a big event, a big fundraising event. Those people work hard. I called their office at 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the big event, and Mary Anne answered the phone, "Good evening, Little Traverse Conservancy." Keep in mind I'm not talking about working harder, I'm talking about doing your homework and understanding the technical tools.
The next five things on the list go together - outreach, education, membership, fundraising, and start that cycle over again.
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