Posted on 04/06/2016 7:32:13 AM PDT by massmike
BOSTON — Is the entirety of a property owned by a religious organization tax-exempt, or can portions not essential to religious worship be carved off and taxed like a house or office building?
That’s the question debated before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Tuesday as lawyers for the National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette sought to overturn a state Appellate Tax Board ruling upholding a $92,292 tax bill from the city of Attleboro.
The justices heard arguments and asked questions for just short of an hour during the proceeding in which attorney Diane Tillotson represented LaSalette and Mike Siddall represented the city.
The Rev. Laura Everett, executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches which filed an amicus brief on behalf of the shrine, said she was concerned the assessor’s position — which she said was based on a “false distinction” between different parts of the LaSalette property — could set a precedent that would have wide-ranging effects on religious sites in Massachusetts.
No decision was immediately announced following Tuesday’s hearing. The court normally operates on a 120-day schedule to return decisions on appeals. The case stems from an Appellate Tax Board decision in favor of assessor’s in which a portion of the 200-acre shrine was deemed taxable, resulting in a tax bill of $92,282.
The shrine paid the bill in 2012 and then applied for an abatement, which was denied.
Last September, the Appellate Tax Board ruled in favor of the city.
According to Siddall, the assessor’s office exempted the church, monastery and other property and grounds devoted to religious contemplation. However, the city judged 40 percent of the remaining property to be taxable.
All told, about $4.9 million worth of the LaSalette property, which has a total assessment of $12.8 million, was taxed in 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesunchronicle.com ...
Our county taxes us on the portion of the parish hall that we use for preschool.
Doesn’t make it right
The mayor of Attleboro is openly gay and “married”.
**According to Siddall, the assessor’s office exempted the church, monastery and other property and grounds devoted to religious contemplation.**
Sounds like a conflict here.
That explains a lot.
NO entity should be free of taxes. None.
Course, that might have to do w/ the law/rules being unequally enforced, etc. I still believe it wrong to exempt some over others. IE: Services for all, but not paid BY all.
Except for a few very small kiosk type structures that are rented to vendors at peak times of year, I don't see how any of the ground is taxable by the town's criteria.
I would also add that the Shrine is run by some absolutely out-to-lunch, pie-in-the-sky far-left clerics. I've talked to more than a couple people who stopped going to mass there after Liberation Theology was openly proclaimed and prayed for from the pulpit.
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