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<div><font color="#000000">Visionaries,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">from today's Spokesman.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><b><br></b></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">I'm no lawyer, but I did serve almost four
years as county commissioner sitting as a BOE. Some
thoughts:</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">this is likely termed an adversarial
proceeding because the "taxpayer" referred to in</font>
63-501A<font color="#000000"> is usually construed to mean the
taxpayer on the property in question. Appealing the assessment of
another taxpayer's valuation challenges their rights as taxpayers even
if in this instance it's their right as non-taxpayers. The closest we
ever got to this question while I was in office was a challenge
initiated by the Board of Commissioners to Gritman's off the roles
status due to a change in policy at the hospital regarding charitable
care for indigent persons. The hospital changed their policy to
restore charitable care so it did not proceed to a hearing. Ada County
followed our lead and did revoke non-taxpaying status for at least one
of the downtown hospitals several years later.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">If possible, I would highly recommend
securing the services of an attorney as Whitney will go out of his way
to place procedural hurdles in your path. The BOE is a quasi-judicial
proceeding under Idaho law (the commissioners sit as administrative
judges) and any ruling made may be appealed by the parties involved to
the State Board of Tax Appeals and that decision to the state courts.
The administrative record of the Latah BOE is the most critical piece
of evidence that is reviewed by the appeals bodies.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Mark Solomon</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">********</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Citizens challenge church's tax status<br>
<br>
Latah commissioners cancel protest hearing<br>
<br>
</font><font color="#000099"><u>Hannelore Sudermann</u></font><font
color="#000000"><br>
Staff writer</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">July 7, 2004<b><br>
<br>
</b>MOSCOW, Idaho - In a rare proceeding for Latah County, two
citizens are questioning the tax exempt status for Christ Church, a
large local religious organization that boasts 800 members, a college,
a publishing company and a seminary.<br>
<br>
The church, its auxiliary offices and the school, New Saint Andrews
College, own and inhabit several buildings in downtown Moscow. The
church and school incorporation are listed with the IRS as public
charities, and with the exception of a few thousand feet which is
rented out as office or retail space, most of their properties are off
the tax rolls.<br>
<br>
A Board of Equalization hearing scheduled Tuesday to hear a protest
filed by Moscow residents Rosemary Huskey and Saundra Lund was
canceled by two of the Latah County commissioners, who comprise
two-thirds of the board. They said with the help of their legal
counsel and after receiving a letter from the college's attorney, they
determined that Christ Church and New Saint Andrews College weren't
given enough notice to prepare.<br>
<br>
"This is our first experience in these kinds of protests,"
said Tom Stroschein, Latah County commissioner and BOE member,
apologizing to the room of about 50 people for postponing the hearing.
The information did not get to Christ Church in a timely manner, he
said.<br>
<br>
Though Huskey and Lund came to the hearing with a stack of documents
and a visual presentation, Stroschein refused to open the meeting
Monday for any kind of testimony. Fellow board member Jack Nelson,
backed his decision. "This is in fairness to the owner of the
property."<br>
<br>
Huskey and Lund said they have no personal connection with the church,
but have filed their protest out of concern that a large and
influential organization in the community may have bent the rules and
is not paying the taxes that it may owe on more than
40,000-square-feet of commercial property.<br>
<br>
Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ Church, is scheduled to be out of town
at a conference in Virginia all this week. The attorney for New Saint
Andrews, Greg Dickison said he had a court commitment in Kootenai
County Tuesday.<br>
<br>
This is not the first controversy for the church. This winter a book
that Wilson co-wrote about slavery at the time of the Civil War caused
a stir when a group of Moscow residents and two UI professors accused
him of being an apologist for the slave-holders. His stance and a
history conference the church hosted drew attention as many
individuals and groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center,
accused Wilson and the speakers he invited to the conference of being
neo-Confederate.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
But this time, the controversy is not about ideology, but about
property and money. Lund and Huskey attended the May 3, 2004, BOE
hearings at which tax exempt status for the downtown properties
belonging to Christ Church and New Saint Andrews College were granted.
They say they were never given an opportunity to speak. "Kind of
like today, there was not place for public input," said
Huskey.<br>
<br>
So they went through a formal process of protesting the status, and in
June filed their complaint claiming that the board granted the status
based on incomplete and inaccurate information. They say they don't
believe the BOE is at fault, just that it wasn't given a complete
picture by the church, the college and their representatives.<br>
<br>
As for the specific issues regarding the church and college tax
status, Lund and Huskey said there were multiple problems, but they
didn't want to discuss them prior to making them public at an open,
on-the-record hearing with the BOE.<br>
<br>
One of their issues could be that County Commissioner Paul Kimmel, a
member of the Christ Church congregation, spoke and voted at the May 3
BOE hearings. His involvement with the church while deciding an issue
that directly affects the church may be a conflict of interest.<br>
<br>
After the hearing today, from which Kimmel recused himself saying he
wanted to avoid even the appearance of conflict, the commissioner told
The Spokesman-Review that he did vote on issues affecting the church
in May, but only after making it known that he was a member. He said
he has no personal or financial affiliation with the college.<br>
<br>
According to the minutes from the May 3 meetings, the other two
commissioners also voted in favor or granting the tax exempt
status.<br>
<br>
Huskey and Lund's protest hearing is now scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday
in the commissioner's meeting room at the courthouse. Because the
hearing has been rescheduled and the issue seems to be of interest to
a number of people community, the postponement will benefit not only
the parties involved, but more people in Latah County who might want
to attend, said Commissioner Nelson.</font><br>
<font color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The women disagreed with the postponement,
saying that they had filed their paperwork and given notice as
instructed and they didn't understand how the church and its
representatives couldn't have known about yesterday's hearing well in
advance. "We all know this is a small town," said Huskey,
adding that she posted the information on a community e-mail exchange.
"This was no surprise."</font></div>
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