[lbo-talk] Churches Putting Town Out of Business

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Dennis Claxton:


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.


[WS:] Slap the fuckers with PILOTS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PILOT_(finance)

While we are at that, nonprofits pose a huge drain to the local government
tax base, because they are exempt, among other, from property tax.
Basically, tax exemption granted by the IRS under the IRS Code section 501 c
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00000501----000-.
html
is often an "unfunded federal mandate" at the expense of local governments.
It benefits mainly two types of institutions - nominally "nonprofit"
businesses (such as hospitals or colleges), and churches.  

As far as "nonprofit" businesses are concerned, they are at least giving
something back in terms of services or higher wages
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/09/art3full.pdf.  However, churches are a
net economic drain, not to mention polluting political environment.

A good starting point to dismantle the highly poisonous grip of organized
religion on the US society is the tax code - specifically, eliminating
generous tax exemptions.

Wojtek