Gov’t Bending Regulations for the Pious

Check out part three of this four-part N.Y. Times series on ways in which the religious enjoy special tax breaks and exemptions from regulations that their secular counterparts do not.

Calling Sam Harris…

N.Y. Times:

As religious organizations of all faiths stretch their concept of mission far beyond traditional worship, should their traditional tax exemptions expand as well? Increasingly, government at all levels is answering yes.

The property tax exemption is one of the oldest tax breaks granted to religious organizations, but it is not the only one. Lawmakers and judges have also approved what amounts to special tax treatment for religious organizations and some of their employees, including exemptions on personal-income and payroll taxes, and have made it easier for them to get tax-exempt construction loans for purely religious projects.

Like the exemptions from federal and state regulations that have proliferated for religious groups in recent years, these tax breaks are widely defended both as an acknowledgment of religion’s contributions to society and as a barrier to unjustified government limitations on the liberty that religious organizations enjoy under the First Amendment.

But in some communities like South Bend, tolerance of religious tax breaks is fraying as local governments struggle to provide basic services with limited resources.

Link

From the NYT

The management of Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame, a retirement community in South Bend, Ind., is arguing in court that the development should be exempt from property taxes. The county tax board of appeals disagrees.