Thanks to Martha Shanahan at the Keene Sentinel for her front page feature piece focusing on the Shire Free Church’s appeal of the City of Keene’s denial of tax exempt status for our Keene parsonage. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on this case. Here’s the Sentinel story, for which city attorney Thom Mullins refused to comment:
Members of a local activist group have appealed a city board’s rejection of their application for tax-exempt status on a Keene duplex.
Jay Denonville, Mark Edgington, Ian B. Freeman and Darryl W. Perry, who identify themselves in the appeal as ministers of the Shire Free Church: Monadnock, say the city’s Board of Assessors should reverse its June decision and allow the group to claim tax-exempt status on the property as the parsonage of a religious organization. The appeal was filed Aug. 28 in Cheshire County Superior Court.
Freeman and Perry, both members of the loosely organized group of bloggers known as Free Keene, filed the application for tax-exempt status at the group’s Leverett Street property in March.
Freeman told The Sentinel he co-founded the Shire Free Church, which has branches and ministers in other parts of New Hampshire and outside of the state, in 2010. (more…)
Ministers of three New Hampshire churches have filed tax exemption appeals with the Cheshire and Grafton superior courts. Peaceful Assembly Church, Shire Free Church: Monadnock, and Church of the Sword were each denied tax exemptions for their properties. Peaceful Assembly sought an exemption for their church building, while the other two sought exemptions for parsonages.
Brandon Ross, the attorney for Peaceful Assembly Church, was surprised by the town’s decision to deny exemption for their church building in Grafton, pointing out, “Peaceful Assembly Church has been around for several years. Seems plain as day they’re entitled to the tax exemption.” According to the filing by Ross in Grafton superior court, “the Grafton Selectmen argued that Peaceful Assembly did not ‘do enough’ for the community to earn a tax exemption (perhaps incorrectly believing that [tax exemption is] a quid-pro-quo arrangement).”
The filing adds, “the Town’s tax assessing agent, Avitar, basically recommended that the exemption be denied because they weren’t an IRS recognized church.” Of course, there is no requirement that a church apply for IRS recognition within NH statutes, nor should there be. Churches do not need government approval to exist and to be tax-exempt.
The ministers of the Shire Free Church: Monadnock argue in their appeal filed in Cheshire superior court that Keene tax assessor Mary Ann Robator engaged in viewpoint discrimination when she said, “When you refer to activists, I think that flies in the face of your church status.” (more…)
Property taxes are a drag, especially here in the Granite State, where, thanks to the “New Hampshire advantage,” they pretty much pay for every aspect of state and local government and the quality of the services we receive are proportional to the value of our community’s real estate and not an individual’s ability to pay.
So, wouldn’t it be nice to simply wish them away, to click the heels of your ruby red shoes and chant: “There’s no tax on home; there’s no tax on home,” and have it become reality?
We’ll soon find out, thanks to the organizers of the Shire Free Church, otherwise known as the Free Keene activists best-known for their efforts to fill expired parking meters, the subsequent court case stemming from their harassment of city parking enforcement employees, their attempts to bait local and state police by pretending to break local drug and alcohol laws, and their efforts to convince others to mess with the courts and the government.
The leaders of that group have applied for tax-exempt status, claiming their house at 73-75 Leverett St. in Keene, which has for several years served as a base for libertarian Internet broadcasting and their local political operations, is now a parsonage. (more…)
AKPF #1, a series that began bringing the internet to the television over one year ago, celebrates this week its revolutionary anniversary episode. With DPRK fireworks erupting over opening credits, the scene unfolds from the People’s BBQ in Central Square, which was enjoyed on Friday, March 9 between five and seven pm. With approximately thirty tacos distributed to the people, a strictly regimented battalion of STOP FREE KEENE!!! silent protesters picketed the barbecue, facing traffic at the head of the grassy roundabout. What occurs is street preaching, sociological analyses, and fetishistic disavowal. Following the feature, we cut to two days prior, as local business Phat Stuff is pillaged by the Drug Enforcement Agency operating at the behest of the federal department of justice. Be sure to stay tuned until the show’s conclusion for a brief Obamacoin presentation.
Two members of a local activist group have applied for tax-exempt status, under religious considerations, for the Leverett Street property one of them formerly owned. (more…)
Thanks to Martha Shanahan at the Keene Sentinel for her front page feature piece focusing on the Shire Free Church’s appeal of the City of Keene’s denial of tax exempt status for our Keene parsonage. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on this case. Here’s the Sentinel story, for which city attorney Thom Mullins refused to comment:
protesters picketed the barbecue, facing traffic at the head of the grassy roundabout. What occurs is street preaching, sociological analyses, and fetishistic disavowal. Following the feature, we cut to two days prior, as local business 
