From the Culture Desk...
At issue, Church vs. State once again. Read the latest from the LA Times:
Churches Putting Town Out of Business
Stafford, Texas, has 51 tax-exempt religious institutions and wants no more: 'Somebody's got to pay for police, fire and schools.
'By Lianne Hart
Times Staff Writer
July 31, 2006
STAFFORD, Texas — They are not the words one expects to hear from a politician or a Southerner, and Leonard Scarcella is both: "Our city has an excessive number of churches.
"Scarcella is mayor of this Houston-area community, which has 51 churches and other religious institutions packed into its 7 square miles.
With some 300 undeveloped, potentially revenue-producing acres left in Stafford, officials are scrambling to find a legal way to keep more tax-exempt churches from building here.
"With federal laws, you can't just say, 'We're not going to have any more churches,' " Scarcella said. "We respect the Constitution, but 51 of anything is too much."
Read the whole thing
ME: Can't say I care too much for the headline. I really didn't care much for this sentence:
"Lawyers researching ways to stop church growth here will report back to city leaders in about six weeks, Scarcella said."
Is this really what passes for responsible representative government? I wonder what the city is actually doing in the way of recruiting new businesses? Seems like that would be a better use of resources.
I have a feeling, however, this will not be an isolated case. The pro-tax crowd has threatened churches' tax-exempt status for years. Reversing that status could have a significant impact on churches' ministry resources. Let's pray it doesn't come to that.
At issue, Church vs. State once again. Read the latest from the LA Times:
Churches Putting Town Out of Business
Stafford, Texas, has 51 tax-exempt religious institutions and wants no more: 'Somebody's got to pay for police, fire and schools.
'By Lianne Hart
Times Staff Writer
July 31, 2006
STAFFORD, Texas — They are not the words one expects to hear from a politician or a Southerner, and Leonard Scarcella is both: "Our city has an excessive number of churches.
"Scarcella is mayor of this Houston-area community, which has 51 churches and other religious institutions packed into its 7 square miles.
With some 300 undeveloped, potentially revenue-producing acres left in Stafford, officials are scrambling to find a legal way to keep more tax-exempt churches from building here.
"With federal laws, you can't just say, 'We're not going to have any more churches,' " Scarcella said. "We respect the Constitution, but 51 of anything is too much."
Read the whole thing
ME: Can't say I care too much for the headline. I really didn't care much for this sentence:
"Lawyers researching ways to stop church growth here will report back to city leaders in about six weeks, Scarcella said."
Is this really what passes for responsible representative government? I wonder what the city is actually doing in the way of recruiting new businesses? Seems like that would be a better use of resources.
I have a feeling, however, this will not be an isolated case. The pro-tax crowd has threatened churches' tax-exempt status for years. Reversing that status could have a significant impact on churches' ministry resources. Let's pray it doesn't come to that.
posted by CP at 7/31/2006 10:51:00 AM
3 Comments:
It's coming. Our tax exempt status will be gone soon. However I can't say I blame the government in regards to some churches. Many churches go around asking for handouts rather than giving back to the community.
See here. Emminent domain was used in Long Beach to tear down a church and put up apartments in their place. Ick!
Having served as a City Councilman some years back, I'm somewhat familiar with city governments. In our case, and I'm sure it's common, the property taxes from pure residences don't support the infrastructure. At one time, our city paid more for trash collection for the citizens than the people paid in residential property tax. We relied on the taxes from businesses, including licenses and sales taxes.
If any city lost its businesses and got all churches and other tax-exempts, they probably couldn't make it. It's not a matter of picking on churches.
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