[Vision2020] 07-10-04 LMT: Commission mulls tax exemption case; Commissioners need time to digest challenge to Christ Church, college

[Art Deco aka W. Fox]

Commission mulls tax exemption case; Commissioners need time to digest challenge
to Christ Church, college


JOEL MILLS [Lewiston Morning Tribune]
MOSCOW -- New St. Andrews College and affiliated Christ Church will have to wait
through the weekend to find out if the Latah County Commission upholds or
repeals their tax-exempt status.

Commissioner Tom Stroschein said he wanted the weekend to read and analyze
information regarding the religious school and church presented by Moscow
residents Saundra Lund and Rose Huskey at a Friday evening hearing. The
commissioners said they will make a decision at an 8 a.m. Monday meeting at the
Latah County Courthouse.

Lund and Huskey were assisted by Moscow attorney Mike Curley in asserting that
the commissioners granted the exemptions in May based on incomplete and
inaccurate information from the church and college. They also focused on whether
the properties in question were used exclusively for religious and educational
purposes, as Idaho tax code requires for such an exemption.

"Christ Church has admitted that a portion of their property is not for
religious use," Curley told commissioners Stroschein and Jack Nelson, who were
acting as the county Board of Equalization. Commission chair Paul Kimmell
recused himself from the hearing because he is a Christ Church member and sits
on the college's advisory council.

The term "exclusive use" arose several times during the 1 1/2-hour long,
standing room only hearing. At issue was a growing bookstore in the college that
sells what Curley and his clients thought were nonreligious and noneducational
items like sweatshirts and especially a million-dollar-a-year publishing
operation based in Christ Church's Anselm House.

"There is no mention of the college bookstore," in documents presented by New
St. Andrews at the May hearing, Lund said. "That raises credibility questions.
And there is no verification of the nonprofit status of New St. Andrews."

Lund also asserted that the college may have registered with the State
Department of Education just to bolster its status as a nonprofit.

"It may have conveyed a mantle of recognition that wasn't deserved at that
point," Lund said. She also noted the school hasn't ever filed as a nonprofit
organization with the IRS.

"That's fine," she said, "but now the burden is on them to prove that they are a
nonprofit (organization). Until we know (whether the college is a nonprofit),
its tax-exempt status should be revoked."

Huskey addressed the issue of Anselm House and the publishing operation, Canon
Press. She said Christ Church told the board the operation was a "small,
in-house press," when in fact it earned $1 million in 2000.

The board had recognized the for-profit nature of those businesses and granted
partial property tax exemptions based on their physical sizes in May. But in
Curley's interpretation of Idaho law, partial exemptions were not valid.

"There is a piece of each parcel that is not exempt," Curley said, "and your
board has been advised that it's all or nothing. Then clearly it should be
nothing."

In rebuttal, New St. Andrews and Christ Church attorney Greg Dickison said the
properties were in fact used exclusively for religious purposes, giving the
example that the press operation was an extension of Christ Church's ministries.
He also disagreed with the contention that his clients purposely misled the
board by presenting limited or skewed information in its application for exempt
status.

"We have never presented anything inaccurate or incomplete to the board at any
time," Dickison said. "We just wouldn't do that."

Dickison also said there were answers to the questions the petitioners were
raising, but on such short notice, he wasn't prepared to address them.

This was the second time the hearing has been continued. Nelson and Stroschein
voted Tuesday for a continuance so Dickison could be present to defend the
exemptions.

Several in the audience Tuesday were frustrated by the delay. Some said the
petition was between Lund, Huskey and the board, and no one needed to represent
Christ Church or the college. Others thought the petition was frivolous, and
could result in anyone being able to challenge the tax-exempt status of any
church or its affiliated school. And one man, who said he attends all
equalization hearings, stood by the commissioners, saying they were following
proper procedure.

Since Friday's hearing was quasi-judicial, no public comment was allowed. But
Moscow resident Don Harter tried to speak and was told by Stroschein he was out
of order. A sheriff's deputy escorted him out of the meeting room in the Latah
County Courthouse.

But earlier in the week Harter called the Lewiston Tribune to express his fear
that New St. Andrews and Christ Church, of which he is not a member, were being
unfairly persecuted because of their controversial views. He also said he feared
that if the exemptions were overturned, the tax status of any church or
affiliated school could be challenged.

"This is not a holy war," Harter said. "But it is the opening of a real war
called an assessment war. Until you've been in an assessment war, you haven't
been to war at all."

New St. Andrews College was founded in 1994 in Moscow. According to its Web
site, it is a private, Christian undergraduate college offering two and
four-year degrees in liberal arts. The site also says 134 students were enrolled
during the 2003 academic year. Christ Church has about 800 members.

The school and Christ Church faced intense scrutiny last year when a pamphlet
written by pastor Doug Wilson in the late 1990s was discovered. Some in the
community said it condoned slavery through its literalist interpretation of the
Bible.

------ 

Mills may be contacted at jmills at lmtribune.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20040710/3d9d7565/attachment-0001.htm