Andrew Cuomo Demands Christian Humanitarian Organization to Pay Taxes After Discharging Final Patient
Jose Nino
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The Christian Post reported that Governor Andrew Cuomo is requesting that Samaritan’s Purse pay up taxes to the state of New York after the organization discharged its last patient this week.
The Christian humanitarian organization treated over 300 Wuhan virus patients at a temporary field hospital in New York City’s Central Park. The organized faced considerable criticism due to its religious background.
“We’re not in a position to provide any subsidies right now because we have a $13 billion deficit,” Cuomo remarked at a press briefing last week.
Per New York state law, individuals or entities working in the state for more than 14 days are subject to an income tax. However, in this case, the Christian Post noted that “organizations and healthcare workers came to the state to help fight the novel coronavirus outbreak at its epicenter after an appeal by the state government seeking assistance.”
“So there’s a lot of good things I’d like to do, and if we get federal funding, we can do, but it would be irresponsible for me to sit here looking at a $13 billion deficit and say I’m gonna spend more money, when I can’t even pay the essential services,” Cuomo stated.
The Samaritan’s Purse set up a 68-bed field hospital which treated 315 patients since it opened on April 1 next to Mount Sinai Hospital as a way of easing the burden of local hospitals overwhelmed by Wuhan virus cases.
Although Reverend Franklin Graham, the leader of Samaritan’s Purse, didn’t respond to Cuomo’s comments, he claimed that his group received an invitation to NYC from Mount Sinai.
“They’re the ones who called us originally. We didn’t call them; they called us,” Graham told Faithwire. “And we agreed to go and we have not charged them one penny. All of our services have been paid by God’s people.”
When the temporary hospital was being set up, the financial comptroller of Samaritan’s Purse infromed the group about New York’s taxes
“What we’re even more concerned about than the money is the bureaucracy, and the paperwork, and I think that once that’s unleashed… once you start filing that, you have to do that for like a whole year or something,” Ken Isaacs, a vice president of the organization, said to PIX11 News.
After the last patient was discharged from the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital, Graham posted on Facebook, “We gave them world-class medical care and showed them God’s love and compassion. We want each one to know the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.”
He added, “We will be taking the hospital tents down in the coming days, but we are leaving some staff behind to help at another location within the Mount Sinai Health System. The people at Mount Sinai have been absolutely great to work with, and we appreciate their support and partnership in this effort to save lives.”
Some elected officials were not so thankful Samaritan’s Purse’s services.
New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson recently urged the Christian charity to leave New York City due to its biblical views on homosexuality.
“It is time for Samaritan’s Purse to leave NYC. This group, led by the notoriously bigoted, hate-spewing Franklin Graham, came at a time when our city couldn’t in good conscience turn away any offer of help. That time has passed,” Johnson Tweeted on May 1, 2020. “Their continued presence here is an affront to our values of inclusion, and is painful for all New Yorkers who care deeply about the LGBTQ community.”
The homosexual speaker admitted that while the Wuhan virus battle was still far from over and that the healthcare system needed all the help it could get, “we can’t continue allowing a group with their track record to remain here when we’re past the point they’re needed … Mount Sinai must sever its relationship with Samaritan’s Purse. Its leader calls the LGBTQ community ‘detestable’ and ‘immoral.’ He says being gay is ‘an affront to God,’ and refers to gay Christians as ‘the enemy.’”
It is a truly sad time in America when organizations engaging in acts of kindness during a time of crisis receive hate from intolerant figures on the political Left.
The politicization of America is clearly making certain individuals not be able to function in normal social settings and be thankful for kind gestures. We simply can’t make every facet of our lives political.
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