Strapped Towns Tax Catholic Properties, Lisa Wangsness, Boston Globe, May 31, 2010

Strapped Towns Tax Catholic Properties

By Lisa Wangsness
Boston Globe
May 31, 2010

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/05/31/boston_area_communities_taxing_closed_catholic_properties/

Nine cities and towns have forced the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to pay property taxes on closed churches, schools, convents, and parish halls, contending that the buildings no longer qualify as tax-exempt because the archdiocese is not using them.

Two of the taxed churches — St. Frances X. Cabrini in Scituate and St. Jeremiah in Framingham — have been occupied for years by former parishioners protesting their closure. But local assessors insist the church buildings are now taxable because the vigils are not sanctioned by the archdiocese.

Maryellen Rogers at St. Frances X. Cabrini Church earlier this month. Former parishioners have occupied the building.

The archdiocese has fought back, arguing that its closed churches should remain exempt from taxation, but has had little success. In Belmont, Danvers, Lowell, Lynn, and Revere, the archdiocese has withdrawn appeals of tax bills for closed churches, reluctantly agreeing to pay reduced levies totaling about $280,000. This year, for example, it will pay the city of Lowell about $19,400 in property taxes on Sacred Heart Church, which was closed in 2003.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars remain in dispute before the state Appellate Tax Board, where the archdiocese hopes to fend off tax collectors in Framingham, Natick, and Scituate, and where it is also challenging Revere's decision to tax a convent that still houses a small number of nuns.

The tax disputes have come to a head at a time of financial duress for both the archdio cese and cities and towns.

Cuts in state aid have forced cities and towns to chop school budgets and scale back library hours. Many of the archdiocesan properties are tempting tax targets because they are expansive and in desirable areas of town, meaning their potential property values are high.

In seaside Scituate, the assessed value of the St. Frances property has fluctuated between $3 million and $4 million; the tax bill for the property is about $34,000 this year.

"That's a firefighter, or a teacher, or a DPW worker — that's not money that Scituate can leave on the table," said Jay Talerman, a lawyer who represented the town in Superior Court.

The archdiocese, meanwhile, has struggled to regain its financial footing in the aftermath of the sexual abuse crisis. This year, the archdiocese hopes to bring its budget into balance for the first time since Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley arrived in 2003. Paying property taxes, the church argues, diverts money from its charitable and spiritual work.

"All of the church property, basically, is relied upon as a source of support for our broad mission, which is. . . to support the poor and help the needy," said F. Beirne Lovely, general counsel for the archdiocese.

The archdiocese suffered a setback recently when it withdrew its Superior Court case against Scituate after initial rulings on motions suggested the church was not likely to prevail without a costly and uncertain battle in appellate courts.