[Vision2020] MORE SHADOWS IN MOSCOW

[Captain Kirker]

Visionheads:

The following three articles, in their original condition, were released 
this Wednesday. The first is a weekly press release from 
“Presbyterians-Week,” which means that the Kirk’s defeat made the AP Wire; 
the next two are from the “Lewiston Morning Tribune.” Jim Fisher’s editorial 
is especially noteworthy.


Presbyterians-Week, 21 July 2004
MORE SHADOWS IN MOSCOW

In response to protests filed by two local citizens, the Latah County, 
Idaho, Board of Equalization (BOE) has revoked the tax-exempt status on two 
of the three downtown properties owned by Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, and 
New St. Andrews College, a church-affiliated ministry.

Under Idaho law, property exempt from taxation must be used exclusively for 
non-profit purposes—a principle violated in the Christ Church case. The BOE 
had granted tax-exempt status on 3 May 2004. All three members of the Board, 
including Paul Kimmel, a member of Christ Church, participated in that vote. 
This time, Mr. Kimmel recused himself.

According to an Associated Press story dated 20 July 2004, Christ Church 
will appeal the decision to the state Board of Tax Appeals.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=15014

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/idaho/story.asp?ID=15370

http://klewtv.com/x5781.xml?ParentPageID=x5649&ContentID=x55871&Layout=KLEW.xsl&AdGroupID=x5781


Lewiston Morning Tribune
Anyone can challenge tax valuation; Officials say Idaho law grants anybody 
legal status to contest tax-exempt status

David Johnson
MOSCOW—A recent challenge of the tax-exempt status of properties owned by 
Christ Church and New St. Andrews College in Moscow underscores the 
potential for a snarl of similar disputes throughout the state, officials 
said Tuesday. Idaho law, according to Latah County Prosecutor William 
Thompson Jr. and Assessor Steve Fiscus, grants anyone legal status to 
challenge the property tax valuation or tax-exempt status of anyone else. 
“It potentially opens something huge,” Fiscus said, “not only for Moscow or 
Latah County, but the whole state.”

A hint of the potential happened last week when two county commissioners, 
acting as the Board of Equalization, revoked tax-exempt status based on 
challenges by Rose Huskey and Saundra Lund of Moscow. The two claimed Christ 
Church’s Anselm House and portions of the college were not used exclusively 
for religious or educational purposes. County commissioners Jack Nelson and 
Tom Stroschein agreed on two counts, but split on a third. Commission 
Chairman Paul Kimmell recused himself from the matter because he is a member 
of Christ Church.

Huskey and Lund said their challenge was based solely on concerns that 
everyone pay their fair share of taxes. But Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ 
Church, said the two women are part of a larger group of “secularists” in 
town bent on harassing him, his church and pretty much anyone associated 
with him. All that aside, Christ Church attorney Greg Dickison said Tuesday 
he will indeed appeal the equalization board’s decision to the state or 
district court level. “We all know this isn’t about tax exemption,” said 
Dickison. “It’s about Christ Church.” Huskey and Lund, meanwhile, have vowed 
to appeal the board’s decision to let stand the tax-exempt status of a third 
parcel where New St. Andrews operates a bookstore. They say Wilson and his 
followers should be held to the same standard as everyone else.

But if that’s indeed the case, conceded Fiscus, there are many properties 
within Moscow and Latah County that could, in theory, be challenged by 
anyone. In fact, said Fiscus and Thompson, Wilson or another member of 
Christ Church could turn around and challenge the property evaluations of 
Huskey and Lund. “The way it (Idaho law) is set up, you could challenge your 
neighbor’s assessment,” Dickison agreed. “Apparently that one slipped under 
Rose Huskey’s nose.”

A worst-case scenario, said Fiscus, would be where the Board of Equalization 
became inundated with challenges for whatever reason. And there appear to be 
many reasons to choose from. A church right across from the Latah County 
Courthouse, for example, operates a day care center that may not fall within 
its religious tax-exempt status. Another church in town rents space for 
Weight Watchers meetings. A third church recently inquired whether placing a 
cell tower on its steeple might threaten its tax-exempt status. In the 
latter case, county officials advised the church that the cell tower, unless 
it was used for religious purposes only, would indeed threaten the 
tax-exempt status. The church didn’t pursue the issue.

Fiscus said that he, as the county’s assessor, has challenged the University 
of Idaho on a number of occasions because it has a variety of 
revenue-generating operations that appear to have no direct link to 
education. He’s lost virtually all those cases and points out that Latah 
County, largely because of its percentage of tax-exempt properties, has the 
second highest overall property tax rate average in the state. If all 
tax-exempt properties were stripped of their status, Fiscus said, people 
paying property taxes would pay perhaps half or less of what they currently 
pay.

If Christ Church loses its appeal, Fiscus said the church and college would 
owe about $20,000 in taxes. Wilson said the church would pay those taxes. He 
also promised the church would pay a “comparable” amount to the city of 
Moscow even if the tax-exempt status is reinstated. He said church elders 
have decided to wage an appeal on principle. He also challenged Huskey and 
Lund to follow through with their principles and challenge other churches 
and tax-exempt properties.

Lund said the two have no reason to do that because there’s no evidence the 
other tax-exempt properties are illegitimate. According to Fiscus, the Board 
of Equalization in Latah County heard about 95 appeals this year. All, 
except the Huskey-Lund challenge, were brought by individuals seeking to 
lower their own tax burden.
------
Johnson may be contacted at deveryone at potlatch.com



Lewiston Morning Tribune
Look who’s seeing a conspiracy in Moscow now
Jim Fisher
It is hardly just conspiracy theorists who recognize that a church-owned 
building used for a commercial enterprise does not enjoy the property tax 
exemption available to churches. That is slam-dunk tax policy. It is not, in 
other words, the “slam-dunk harassment” that Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ 
Church in Moscow, says it is. And in leveling that charge, Wilson makes 
himself look like his characterization of liberal Moscowans who fear a 
Christ Church takeover of their community. “One of the problems with the 
folks who are hyperventilating is that they won’t stop believing that 
there’s a grand conspiracy,” Wilson says of his critics, presumably 
including the two women who called Latah County commissioners’ attention to 
the misuse of Christ Church’s tax exemption. But you needn’t believe in any 
grand conspiracy to work for fair property taxation, if only out of 
self-interest. When someone else is exempted from the property tax, you pay 
more.

That’s not the only reason all Moscowans should support fair taxation, 
however. Other bakeries in town operate in buildings subject to the property 
tax, and no doubt pay or help pay that tax through their rent or purchase 
payments, so there is no reason the one operating in Christ Church’s 
building should not. That explains why Democrat Tom Stroschein and 
Republican Jack Nelson agreed to reject tax exemptions for two buildings 
owned by the church or New St. Andrews College. (The third commissioner, 
Republican Paul Kimmell, prudently abstained from voting because he attends 
Christ Church.)

And Wilson is fooling himself if he believes most of those who oppose his 
church’s tax exemptions would not also oppose those of other nonprofit 
organizations if their buildings housed for-profit businesses, again if only 
out of self-interest.

If Christ Church does plan to appeal the commissioners’ decision to the 
State Board of Tax Appeals, though, it will need more than self-interest to 
make its case. And it’s hard to see what it will have. While the church puts 
its appeal together, though, let both sides in the dispute over Christ 
Church’s intentions for Moscow remember that this is a question of taxation, 
no more and no less. If Wilson continues to spin a conspiracy theory of his 
own, he will lose what credibility he has enjoyed in poking fun at those he 
calls “intoleristas.”—J.F.

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