10/27/05 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom Church asks Rockaway Twp. for 100% tax break BY ROB JENNINGS DAILY RECORD
Christ Church of Montclair does not want to pay any property taxes on the 107-acre site in Rockaway Township that the church acquired from Agilent Technologies for $10.25 million, township officials said today.
The 5,000-member, evangelical Christian church, which bought the Green Pond Road site on Aug. 22, sought a full property tax exemption in an Oct. 7 letter to Rockaway Township tax assessor Mark Burek.
Burek said he would rule on the request by Dec. 31. He said Christ Church remains responsible for filing a quarterly property tax payment Nov. 1.
Agilent paid the first three installments of its $717,497 property tax bill, Burek said, though the company has a pending appeal of its 2004 and 2005 assessments in state tax court.
Christ Church's spokesman, Marc Weinstein, said the church is entitled to a full exemption.
"Christ Church is constitutionally entitled to a tax exemption to the property because it is a religious institution," Weinstein said.
He declined to say whether the church would make a payment next month.
Rockaway Township Mayor Louis Sceusi said a full tax exemption for Christ Church isn't a sure thing.
"I suspect the concern would be, if they're not using the entire building, that it's all tax-exempt," Sceusi said.
Fifty church employees, including pastor David Ireland, will be relocating their administrative offices to the onetime Agilent building in November, Weinstein said
"We expected the request for a reduction. We did not know how much they would ask for," Sceusi said.
The planning board approved Christ Church's tenancy application last month for its employees but has not ruled on the church's controversial building plan -- highlighted by a 2,512-seat sanctuary, private K-5 school, a fellowship hall and recreational facilities.
A 22nd public hearing will take place next month.
Sceusi said that the former Agilent site is in the "top 15" of local property tax generators. Rockaway Township has a $2.9 billion municipal tax base, including the Rockaway Townsquare mall.
Weinstein said the loss in local tax revenues would be offset by up to $11 million in annual economic activity generated by Christ Church if the building plan gains approval -- from church members buying houses in Rockaway Township and "job creation," to increased shopping at the mall and elsewhere.
"The town will benefit from an infusion of new purchasing activity," Weinstein said.
Weinstein, citing a study commissioned by the church, said church members would spend anywhere from $25 to $46 per week in Rockaway Township.
Burek said that Rockaway Township's attorney, Edward Buzak, will review statutes and court rulings before making a recommendation on the church's request for a property tax exemption.
The $10.25 million purchase price was included in the deed filed with the township, Burek said. Christ Church initially had a $14 million purchase agreement with Agilent in 2003.
Planning board hearings have been underway since Dec. 15, 2003.
In April, Christ Church filed a federal lawsuit against Sceusi, the township council, the planning board and the environmental commission, accusing the defendants of stalling and trying to undermine its building proposal.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division is investigating Rockaway Township's handling of the matter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob Jennings can be reached at (973) 428-6667 or robjennings@gannett.com.
You gotta laugh "Weinstein said the loss in local tax revenues would be offset by up to $11 million in annual economic activity generated by Christ Church if the building plan gains approval -- from church members buying houses in Rockaway Township and "job creation," to increased shopping at the mall and elsewhere." Buying house in RT, yeah after they ruin the community and force people to move. Some neighbor this guy is gonna be. Doesn't want to pay taxes. If the pb doesn't do something they might as well forget RT as it was cause it will be the Mega center and ireland will just bulldoze us away.
Here is another "I told you so." Go back and look at earlier postings wherein I stated that cc would never pay a lick of taxes on the building in which they have their offices.
He simply will never send in the check! Done!! I know - - - then the town will forclose on him. Yeah, they would do that to you or me if we did not pay our taxes, but never to a so called black minister! Never happen.
The township is "cooked". And I must say, it is getting what it deserves for being so frigging stupid. Why, with Dimwit Dimin and his sidekick Dicker coupled with an opportunist named Marci Hamilton, the only one who has comported himself decently throughout this entire affair has been Sceusi. Everyone else deserves exactly what they are about to get.
Maybe this needs to go back to the High Court, one can only hope
Justice Burger argued that the tax exemption for churches represented "benevolent neutrality." Many have since questioned whether it is possible for neutrality to be benevolent. But while the decision was favorable for exemption supporters, opponents of exemption point out that, according to the decision, while the government may constitutionally grant church exemptions, it did not say that the government must grant the exemption.
In fact, by leaving this door open, a future challenge to the exemption can not only point out the inherent contradiction in the "benevolent neutrality" phrase and the questionable "social benefit provided by churches" argument, but can also apply the logic used in the more recent Regan v. Taxation without Representation case. There, Justice Rehnquist admitted that "tax exemption and tax deductibility are a form of subsidy....This Court has never held that the Court must grant a benefit....to a person who wishes to exercise a constitutional right....we again reject the "notion that First Amendment rights are somehow not fully realized unless they are subsidized by the state." Rehnquist was stating this with regard to a subsidy for a political organization. The same logic can be used to end tax exemption for churches.
from Delibert, Steven. ( "Should Churches Be Taxed? Yes -- Tax Exemption Unconstitutionally Establishes Religion."
One does not have to be a *uckin Constitutional Scholar to see that it is tantamont to state sponsered religion! The exemptions to "churches" should be stopped NOW!
When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obligated to call for help of the civil power, it's a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.
