La Salette Tax Question Goes Before Supreme Judicial Court

Church and state faced off in recent court arguments over whether or not the land that hosts the Roman Catholic Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette can be taxed.

According to state tax law, areligious institution's houses of worship do not have to pay property taxes. At issue in this case is whether this applies to all of the the shrine's land, which covers over 200 acres.

The shrine is well known, in part, for it's luminous Christmas displays.

As reported by WBUR, tax assessors have reported the land's value at $12.8 million. Of this land, the assessors believe $4.9 million worth is taxable.

How did they decide this? Massachusetts law exempts from taxation "[Houses] of religious worship owned by, or held in trust for the use of, any religious organization, and the pews and furniture and each parsonage so owned, or held in irrevocable trust, for the exclusive benefit of the religious organizations."

However, it continues, "[Such] exemption shall not, except as herein provided, extend to any portion of any such house of religious worship appropriated for purposes other than religious worship or instruction."

So as long as the land is used as a "house of worship," the land will be exempt from property taxes.

Though the shrine's entire property has been exempt since its foundation in 1953, assessors recently concluded that not all the land can accurately be considered a house of worship.

In particular, the 100 plus acres of woodland cannot, according to the assessors, be considered part of the "house of worship." On the other hand, the Church's parking lot was found to be exempt from taxes.

The central question of the case is whether or not the government should be the arbiter of what lands should are used for a religious purpose as defined by tax law, or whether this is the prerogative of the religious institutions. Who gets to decide, for instance, whether or not woods should be included as a part of the "house of worship"?

According to The Sun Chronicle, the city's chief assessor defended the city's right to make this decision. In his view, "It’s about what’s fair and equitable. We’re applying the same rules to them that we apply to all taxpayers."

But Rev. Laura Everett, executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, disagrees. As WBUR reported that she told reporters, "The idea that secular tax officials would come in and parse what is religious and what is not for religious institutions, we’ve grave concerns about the entanglement of government bodies acting to decide how a religion should practice."

Photo Credit: Steven Isaacson via Flickr