DONTUSEKIDS.COM
PROTECTING THE CHILDREN

CORPORATE SPONSOR ADVERTISEMENTS DROPPED FROM PAYKIDS.COM

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19: AMID CLAIMS THAT MIKE COX’S  PAY KIDS FOUNDATION is a “PAC in disguise”, Corporate Sponsor advertisements previously displayed on the paykids.com home page were pulled without comment. 

Gone were the corporate logos of ART VAN, MEIJER, SBC, MSMS (Michigan State Medical Society) and MHS (Michigan Health & Hospital Association Service Corporation) that had been prominently featured at paykids.com. Viewers accustomed to their bright presence described the blank space left as “eerie” and speculated that “something is definitely up.” 

Rumors had been building among noncustodial parents over the past two weeks that a “shake-up” was in store at Pay Kids over what they termed its “questionable” status as a 501(c)3 Charitable Organization.  They had pointed to a troubling “symbiotic relationship” between the organization and Attorney General Mike Cox that many charged was not kosher--that regardless of its legal structure, it actually functioned as a “thinly veiled” Political Action Committee for Attorney General Mike Cox.  Complaints reportedly e-mailed to the office of the Attorney General--who is charged with policing charitable organizations in Michigan--went unanswered. 

Some are now pointing to the missing corporate sponsor logos at paykids.com as evidence that a “cover up” is underway. 

As detailed in previous reports on this story at DONTUSEKIDS.COM, many regard Mike Cox and the Pay Kids Foundation that he founded (originally as the Mike Cox Pay Kids Foundation) as incestuously close and--some speculate--too close to be legal.

They raise troubling issues of fact. The need for an Attorney General to establish a foundation to nab “deadbeats” seems a circular argument at best. As Attorney General, he would surely have direct access to the “deadbeat rolls” without need for a foundation’s web site for custodial parents to post “requests for assistance” to identify the deadbeats. The Foundation’s web site does appear more self-promotional than Brittany Spears’, peppered top to bottom with references and testimonials to “Attorney General Mike Cox.”  The many billboards the organization has put up across the state always prominently feature “Attorney General Mike Cox” and “1-800-PAYKIDS” . . .  and the phone number displayed as the Foundation’s has rung to the Attorney General’s offices.

It is true that when public criticism arose against his “Children’s Billboard Contest,” Attorney General Mike Cox/Pay Kids changed the rules (to include only junior and high school kids) without notice--while Cox spokesmen claimed to find nothing wrong with the contest. 

When mental health professionals publicly criticized the contest as harmful for children, according to the Detroit News Mr. Cox admitted he had “made a mistake” and canceled the contest.

Yet when, under apparent pressure, he posted official Notice of the contest cancelation on the Pay Kids web site, he admitted no mistake and attributed the cancelation to the deliberate misinterpretation of the contest by “some.” 

Mr. Cox failed to inform the parents of Michigan that his previous encouragements were wrong. 

His cancelation notice was a remarkable juxtaposition of “I” and “We” that left many shaking their heads and concluding that even Mr. Cox does not know where Mike Cox ends and Pay Kids begins--and that if there were any distinction to be made between them at all, it was apparent only when he referred to the contest as a collaborative effort, i.e., something “We” devised.  Yet his statement regarding the cancelation was that “I am ending the contest immediately.” It is difficult to understand how the Attorney General could exercise such authority without being an officer of the Foundation . . . or, if that is indeed the case, how the exhaustive promotion of Attorney General Mike Cox in the Foundation’s ad campaign can be squared with IRS prohibitions against private inurement or the organization’s own Articles of Incorporation. 

But today’s withdrawal of corporate sponsor advertisements from the Pay Kids web site prompts new questions about the organization that some charge is “just a PAC for Mike Cox.” 

[NEXT PAGE]