NEW YORK - Fewer than 15,000 of the millions of New Yorkers who filed tax returns this year checked off a box to make a voluntary donation to the World Trade Center Memorial fund, state officials said.
The program raised $150,085 for the memorial fund, according to the Department of Taxation and Finance.
The state allows taxpayers to make contributions to as many as seven charitable organizations on their tax forms. Of those, the Trade Center memorial fund came in sixth, outdrawing only the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center.
“We are slightly disappointed by the results,” WTC Memorial Foundation President Gretchen Dykstra told the New York Daily News.
Voluntary tax donations are only one way the foundation is raising money to build the World Trade Center memorial, a Sept. 11 museum and two other cultural buildings at ground zero.
In its first year, the nonprofit foundation has raised $130 million from private donors. Another $300 million has been committed by government agencies
Even with those commitments in hand, it is unclear whether enough money to support the project has been raised.
The estimated price tag of the memorial soared past $972 million in recent weeks, prompting officials in New York and New Jersey to urge changes that would keep the cost under $500 million.
The Memorial Foundation board suspended fundraising several weeks ago while it reevaluates the costs and current designs.
The memorial, called “Reflecting Absence,” would create two deep pools and a subterranean chamber in a plaza surrounded by oak trees. Construction is hoped to be complete by 2009.
State lawmakers added the tax checkoff option for donations to the memorial fund last year.
Other charities that did better benefited health care research and the environment. More than $420,000 was raised for breast cancer research and treatment. A wildlife fund raised nearly $353,000.
A spokeswoman for Gov. George Pataki said the administration more New Yorkers would participate in the program once a national fundraising campaign for the memorial is launched.
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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com
AP-ES-05-20-06 1027EDT
The state allows taxpayers to make contributions to as many as seven charitable organizations on their tax forms. Of those, the Trade Center memorial fund came in sixth, outdrawing only the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center.
“We are slightly disappointed by the results,” WTC Memorial Foundation President Gretchen Dykstra told the New York Daily News.
Voluntary tax donations are only one way the foundation is raising money to build the World Trade Center memorial, a Sept. 11 museum and two other cultural buildings at ground zero.
In its first year, the nonprofit foundation has raised $130 million from private donors. Another $300 million has been committed by government agencies
Even with those commitments in hand, it is unclear whether enough money to support the project has been raised.
The estimated price tag of the memorial soared past $972 million in recent weeks, prompting officials in New York and New Jersey to urge changes that would keep the cost under $500 million.
The Memorial Foundation board suspended fundraising several weeks ago while it reevaluates the costs and current designs.
The memorial, called “Reflecting Absence,” would create two deep pools and a subterranean chamber in a plaza surrounded by oak trees. Construction is hoped to be complete by 2009.
State lawmakers added the tax checkoff option for donations to the memorial fund last year.
Other charities that did better benefited health care research and the environment. More than $420,000 was raised for breast cancer research and treatment. A wildlife fund raised nearly $353,000.
A spokeswoman for Gov. George Pataki said the administration more New Yorkers would participate in the program once a national fundraising campaign for the memorial is launched.
---
Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com
AP-ES-05-20-06 1027EDT
