Keene Sentinel’s Feature Story on Shire Free Church’s 2015 Tax Exemption Denial

Keene SentinelAs expected, the city tax assessor denied Shire Free Church: Monadnock’s 2015 tax exemption for our parsonage and parish house here in Keene. Thanks to the Keene Sentinel’s Martha Shanahan for her feature story that was published in Tuesday’s paper:

Members of a Keene activist group and self-proclaimed church plan to file an appeal in Cheshire County Superior Court after the Keene Board of Assessors again denied their request for tax-exempt status on a Leverett Street house.

 

The group’s members, ministers of the Shire Free Church: Monadnock, have hired Manchester Attorney Brandon L. Ross to represent them in their second attempt to prove that the duplex doubles as a parish house or parsonage.

 

Ian B. Freeman, Darryl W. Perry and Mark Edgington, all members of the board of Shire Free Church: Monadnock and members of a loosely organized group of Keene libertarian activists, first filed an application with the Board of Assessors for tax-exempt status in March 2014.

 

Freeman and Edgington host a call-in satellite radio show from the house, and many of the members of the church also write about local libertarian and political issues at FreeKeene.com.

 

The group claims the house is used for purposes related to the church and houses some of its ministers.

 

The board ruled it was not eligible for tax-exempt status.

 

State law allows for exemption from taxes for “houses of public worship, parish houses, church parsonages occupied by their pastors, convents, monasteries, buildings and the lands appertaining to them” as long as the buildings are owned, used and occupied directly for religious training or for other religious purposes.”

 

The law says the building must be used by a “regularly recognized and constituted denomination, creed or sect” to qualify for tax exemption.

 

Mary Ann Robator, one of three board members, told the Shire Free Church applicants that the board was denying their first request because the church members were more defined by their political views than their religious convictions.

 

The church members appealed in court, arguing that Robator had used discriminatory language against the church in her explanation for why the board was denying the request for tax-free status.

 

A judge denied the city’s request to dismiss the appeal in October, but the group later decided to drop the case, pay their 2014 taxes, and start again in a new tax year after hiring Ross to represent them.

 

This time, Freeman said, the group’s members are applying for about 80 percent tax-exempt status, instead of the 100 percent they asked for last time, because the house now has a renter who is unaffiliated with the church.

 

The three-member Board of Assessors had a chance to review the new application July 15, and again denied the group tax-exempt status.

 

City Assessor Daniel Langille said the applicants hadn’t provided evidence that the group is primarily a religious organization.

 

“They still didn’t prove that they’re eligible,” he told The Sentinel Monday.

 

Edgington said he’s not surprised.

 

The group can now appeal either to the state Board of Tax and Land Appeals or in Cheshire County Superior Court, Langille said.

 

Edgington said he and fellow activists plan to take the appeal to court, adding that the group is prepared to fight for tax-exemptstatus in a “landmark case.”

 

Ross will continue to work for the group in an advisory role, Freeman said.

 

Ross did not return a request for comment Monday.

 

In a video of the July 15 meeting Freeman posted on FreeKeene.com, the members of the Board of Assessors did not explain their decision.

 

Cynthia Georgina, a former city councilor and member of the board, said in the video she might have changed her mind if the Shire Free Church: Monadnock owned a building where services took place.

 

“They have a parsonage where people live, but I would feel better if they had a church,” Georgina said.

 

Edgington said Monday the church’s congregation is the audience of the talk radio show he and Freeman host from the Leverett Street house.

 

A religion doesn’t need to have a steeple, or even a building, to qualify, he said.

 

“For the past 12 years … I’ve been preaching a moral message on the radio to a very large group of people,” he said. “It’s about issues, but issues do coincide with morality constantly.”

 

The ministers are ordained online by the California-based Universal Life Church, which offers free ordination to anyone who applies through its website.

 

Edgington is also involved with a similar case in Westmoreland, in which an organization called the Church of the Sword asked for a religious-based property tax exemption for a house on Route 12 which the church says is a parsonage.

 

Westmoreland officials denied that request last year, the Concord Monitor reported. On appeal, a judge in Cheshire County Superior Court ruled that the Church of the Sword is not a religious organization and that the town had the power to make that distinction.

 

Shire Free Church: Monadnock bought the Leverett Street house, valued by the city at about $180,000, from Freeman in 2013.

 

The Shire Free Church has also recently purchased a building on Route 101 in Keene where James Cleaveland, who is also associated with the libertarian activists, has been operating a thrift store there since November.

 

Freeman said the church paid about $200,000 to buy the building.

 

He said Cleaveland plans to continue operating the store there, and that the church does not have any immediate plans to apply for tax-exempt status on that building.

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