deepriver at avagara.com
01-21-2002, 08:46 AM
Interesting editorial from the Jan. 20, 2002 Baltimore SUN.
[excerpts after signature]
http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/bal-ed.churches20jan20.story
Dan Prives
Works with nonprofits
Baltimore, Maryland
Divine capitalism
Faith-based investing: As churches engage in community
development, tax issues arise for city.
[EXCERPTS]
WHEN ARNOLD Williams last week became the first African-American
to chair the Baltimore Development Corp., his well-wishers at
City Hall included some unusual investors - four leading
pastors. They were there as the vanguard of divine capitalism,
an emerging phenomenon that holds great promise for the city but
may also lead to complicated political and tax problems.
New Psalmist Baptist Church is a prime example of that
challenge.
Under the 27-year leadership of the Rev. Walter Scott Thomas,
New Psalmist has grown from a 200-member congregation to a
7,000-member mega-church. It and its development corporation now
own some 50 acres near the city's western border, including a
mostly undeveloped former plantation acquired 18 months ago.
...
New Psalmist entities are gearing up to acquire additional
acreage, mostly aging or rundown apartment complexes, around the
core property. If that happens, New Psalmist would become a
veritable principality within the city, with a campus stretching
from Edmondson Village to Ten Hills, between Frederick Road and
Edmondson Avenue.
...
The developments would have questionable benefits for
cash-strapped Baltimore if tax-exempt church entities solely
acquire huge areas of developable land and take them off the
city's shrinking tax base.
If the BDC aids this kind of tax-free empire building, it will
simply be aggravating the municipal government's fiscal
problems.
...
New Psalmist is not the only Baltimore church moving in this
direction, either. All over Baltimore, a growing number of
congregations are pursuing similar investment strategies.
Some are mega-churches like the Rev. Harold A. Carter Sr.'s New
Shiloh Baptist Church. With the help of the city-operated BDC,
its development arm has converted an abandoned West Baltimore
dairy near the sanctuary into a base of educational and social
activities.
Others are smaller congregations like the Rev. Nathaniel Higgs'
Southern Baptist Church. Its development corporation is building
60 homes and a senior center at the long-vacant American Brewery
property along Gay Street. When the $12 million project is
completed later this year, it will be a rare glimmer of hope in
a wasteland of abandoned buildings and addicts looking for a
fix.
...
Already, a debate is simmering about taxation inequities.
Baltimore homeowners pay Maryland's highest property taxes,
partly because one third of city real estate - from park land to
religious and nonprofit buildings - is off the tax rolls.
Meanwhile, diminished revenues make it difficult for the
government to provide public services.
Led by Johns Hopkins, 22 nonprofit organizations last year tried
to stave off any further talk of taxation by pledging to pay $20
million in lieu of taxes over the next four years to compensate
for such services as fire and police protection.
A City Council intervention - fueled by heavy lobbying on Mayor
Martin O'Malley from the Catholic archdiocese - led to an
arrangement that specifically exempted religious organizations
from such obligations. But that deal will have to be revisited
in light of religious organizations' welcome interest in
development.
Mega-churches know this. That's why New Psalmist has lent its
pulpit to such notables as President Bill Clinton and Gov.
Parris N. Glendening when they delivered good funding news for
the city. That's why Sankofa's Mr. Smith, a former law partner
of U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, another New Psalmist
worshipper, knows by heart that 2,300 church members live and
vote in the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth City Council districts.
...
Divine capitalism churches ... put more value on cooperation
from politicians and other decision-makers; they rely on quiet
work by lawyers and accountants who are church members.
...
Divine capitalism offers exciting opportunities for Baltimore.
But as more and more churches ask for assistance and City Hall's
stamp of approval, the Baltimore Development Corp. should insist
on reciprocity. There is nothing wrong with nonprofit religious
organizations formalizing payment agreements to governments. In
fact, the practice has the endorsement of the highest authority.
When asked whether believers should pay taxes to the Roman
Empire, Jesus urged them to render "to Caesar the things that
are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list
[excerpts after signature]
http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/bal-ed.churches20jan20.story
Dan Prives
Works with nonprofits
Baltimore, Maryland
Divine capitalism
Faith-based investing: As churches engage in community
development, tax issues arise for city.
[EXCERPTS]
WHEN ARNOLD Williams last week became the first African-American
to chair the Baltimore Development Corp., his well-wishers at
City Hall included some unusual investors - four leading
pastors. They were there as the vanguard of divine capitalism,
an emerging phenomenon that holds great promise for the city but
may also lead to complicated political and tax problems.
New Psalmist Baptist Church is a prime example of that
challenge.
Under the 27-year leadership of the Rev. Walter Scott Thomas,
New Psalmist has grown from a 200-member congregation to a
7,000-member mega-church. It and its development corporation now
own some 50 acres near the city's western border, including a
mostly undeveloped former plantation acquired 18 months ago.
...
New Psalmist entities are gearing up to acquire additional
acreage, mostly aging or rundown apartment complexes, around the
core property. If that happens, New Psalmist would become a
veritable principality within the city, with a campus stretching
from Edmondson Village to Ten Hills, between Frederick Road and
Edmondson Avenue.
...
The developments would have questionable benefits for
cash-strapped Baltimore if tax-exempt church entities solely
acquire huge areas of developable land and take them off the
city's shrinking tax base.
If the BDC aids this kind of tax-free empire building, it will
simply be aggravating the municipal government's fiscal
problems.
...
New Psalmist is not the only Baltimore church moving in this
direction, either. All over Baltimore, a growing number of
congregations are pursuing similar investment strategies.
Some are mega-churches like the Rev. Harold A. Carter Sr.'s New
Shiloh Baptist Church. With the help of the city-operated BDC,
its development arm has converted an abandoned West Baltimore
dairy near the sanctuary into a base of educational and social
activities.
Others are smaller congregations like the Rev. Nathaniel Higgs'
Southern Baptist Church. Its development corporation is building
60 homes and a senior center at the long-vacant American Brewery
property along Gay Street. When the $12 million project is
completed later this year, it will be a rare glimmer of hope in
a wasteland of abandoned buildings and addicts looking for a
fix.
...
Already, a debate is simmering about taxation inequities.
Baltimore homeowners pay Maryland's highest property taxes,
partly because one third of city real estate - from park land to
religious and nonprofit buildings - is off the tax rolls.
Meanwhile, diminished revenues make it difficult for the
government to provide public services.
Led by Johns Hopkins, 22 nonprofit organizations last year tried
to stave off any further talk of taxation by pledging to pay $20
million in lieu of taxes over the next four years to compensate
for such services as fire and police protection.
A City Council intervention - fueled by heavy lobbying on Mayor
Martin O'Malley from the Catholic archdiocese - led to an
arrangement that specifically exempted religious organizations
from such obligations. But that deal will have to be revisited
in light of religious organizations' welcome interest in
development.
Mega-churches know this. That's why New Psalmist has lent its
pulpit to such notables as President Bill Clinton and Gov.
Parris N. Glendening when they delivered good funding news for
the city. That's why Sankofa's Mr. Smith, a former law partner
of U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, another New Psalmist
worshipper, knows by heart that 2,300 church members live and
vote in the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth City Council districts.
...
Divine capitalism churches ... put more value on cooperation
from politicians and other decision-makers; they rely on quiet
work by lawyers and accountants who are church members.
...
Divine capitalism offers exciting opportunities for Baltimore.
But as more and more churches ask for assistance and City Hall's
stamp of approval, the Baltimore Development Corp. should insist
on reciprocity. There is nothing wrong with nonprofit religious
organizations formalizing payment agreements to governments. In
fact, the practice has the endorsement of the highest authority.
When asked whether believers should pay taxes to the Roman
Empire, Jesus urged them to render "to Caesar the things that
are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list