Protesters Push Tax Law Barring Club Deductions

Protesters with picket signs jammed the sidewalk in front of the exclusive Jonathan Club in Santa Monica on Saturday, calling for passage of a law that would bar people from taking tax deductions on expenses incurred at private clubs that practice discrimination.

Conway H. Collis, a state Board of Equalization member, is promoting the plan, which is expected to come before the Franchise Tax Board on Aug. 19. Collis said that “tax fraud” is being committed by anyone who takes deductions for the cost of joining or conducting business at a discriminatory club, because the clubs say they are used only for social purposes.

“They claim no business is being conducted,” Collis said during the brief protest at the beachfront club. “Yet they turn around and take deductions. They can’t have it both ways.”

Collis was joined at the demonstration by Los Angeles City Controller Rick Tuttle and about 30 people from the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the Women Lawyers Assn. of Los Angeles, the National Organization for Women and the Center for Law in the Public Interest.

“We want to make it perfectly clear that discrimination is not appreciated,” said Raymond Johnson Jr., president of the NAACP chapter in Los Angeles. Susan Troy of the Women Lawyers’ Assn. said club members should not be allowed to take a “free lunch.”

Collis said protesters gathered in front of the Jonathan Club because it is one of several private facilities statewide that discriminates on the basis of race, religion and sex. The Jonathan Club, which has denied those charges in the past, had no comment Saturday.

But two people in tennis outfits emerged from the club’s parking lot to challenge the demonstrators. One man, who asked not to be identified, called Collis’ proposal “ridiculous” and “unfair.”

Collis, saying he expects strong opposition from private clubs, noted that Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) has tried unsuccessfully to win passage for a similar proposal for three years.

Under the proposal, state tax deductions for expenses such as membership fees and lunches would be taken away from the members of private clubs that discriminate. Collis said he did not know how many other clubs would be affected by his proposal.