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Tax refunds help those in need Photo by Jim Craven Dr. Michael Villanueva visits Edwin Dunn, 81, at a Medford nursing home. By BILL KETTLER Your Oregon income tax refund may be helping Medford researchers measure pain that patients can't describe. Or Jackson County women learn better parenting skills. Or Rogue Valley biologists search for elusive wolverines. Every year Oregonians donate hundreds of thousands of dollars from their income tax refunds to the "charitable checkoff" program. Contributors can't specify how or where the money will be spent by the organizations they support, but tax checkoff funds have supported a variety of projects in Southern Oregon during the program's 20-year history. This year, for example, Medford psychologist Dr. Michael Villanueva is studying pain in dementia patients with a $13,581 grant from the Alzheimer's Research Alliance. The alliance is one of the five groups that receives tax checkoff funds. Villanueva says people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia often cannot say whether they are in pain. That makes it difficult for caregivers to know whether they might need pain medication. He and his associates are developing a list of patient behaviors (things such as appetite and facial gestures) that caregivers can observe to judge whether someone might be in pain. "It's a tool for tracking pain," he says. "It will help us do a better job of telling whether our interventions are working." Tax checkoff contributions amounted to more than $606,000 for the 1998 tax year, says Deni Cooperrider of the Oregon Department of Revenue. Each of the five organizations that receives funds has its own procedures for allocating the money. The Alzheimer's Research Alliance funds grant proposals, as does the Children's Trust Fund, the group that collects contributions to prevent child abuse. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife puts tax checkoff contributions into its wildlife diversity program. State wildlife officials decide how to allocate the funds among the agency's nongame wildlife programs. Often the tax checkoff contributions provide state matching money that helps ODFW earn federal grants. Regional biologist Simon Wray says some of the contributions are being spent this spring in a joint state and federal project to identify wolverine habitat in the Cascades. The tax checkoff donations provide a substantial proportion of some of the organizations' budgets. Contributions to the Children's Trust Fund ($169,181 in 1998) represent about 35 percent of the money it distributes to social service organizations, says executive director Cindy Thompson. Thompson said the trust fund provided $14,000 to Dunn House (A women's shelter) this year for a program to strengthen women's parenting skills. The tax checkoff program began in 1979 with a single fund for Oregon nongame wildlife. Other organizations were added over the years. Several were withdrawn when they failed to gather the minimum contribution of $50,000 per year. For the tax year 2000, more organizations will have the opportunity to collect money from tax refunds. The 1999 Legislature created a process for organizations that want to seek support through the income tax form. To qualify for the refund checkoff, an organization must have tax-exempt status under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code; must have received $1 million in contributions and revenue during the previous year; must provide services that are consistent with the policies and programs of the state; and must collect 10,000 signatures from Oregon registered voters. Cooperrider said several organizations have inquired about the process, but she knew of none that had started collecting signatures. Cooperrider said the state income tax form will change to accommodate the new process. Each group that qualifies for funding will receive an identifying number. People who want to contribute to an organization will write its number in an appropriate space on their tax form. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA