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