Why churches shouldn’t be taxed

Steve Barnhart (9/19 Letters) wrote that perhaps it is time to tax churches because two local Catholic bishops expressed their opinions concerning the morality of government involvement in health care.

If the churches should be taxed, then it would include synagogues and mosques and their schools, hospitals, field houses, athletic fields and parks that are run mostly tax-free by various religions. If these facilities were closed by the lack of money to pay these new taxes, Mr. Barnhart and all others would have to pay extra taxes to rent or buy or build to replace many of these buildings or facilities the government gets use of for free or little expense now.

I don’t think any local school districts or other taxpayers would want to pick up the burden of the extra children they would have to educate — in this era.

Bill Joyce
Westwood

Comments

[JoCo]

Aren't many of these faith-based initiatives already subsidized by taxation to some degree?