The recklessness of the enactors of the New York tax law is visible in
its blanket nature. Not satisfied with exempting property in actual use,
the statute contains a provision by which the tax assessor is called
upon to become a telepathic expert, and to divine the intentions of a
corporation holding land out of use! Not only property actually used
for religious purposes is to go untaxed, but also land where the
construction of buildings for the purpose of worship "is in good faith
contemplated!" No method for testing the "good faith" is provided, nor
any safeguard against abuse of the "good faith" clause. No more
open invitation to fraud could be devised. No penalty for evasion is
provided, and no means of collecting back taxes, in case the church
corporation, after grabbing land from the heart of the city, and holding
it ten or twenty years under the pretense of intending to build on it
at some future time, shall find it impracticable or undesirable to carry
out the "contemplated" action, and shall sell the land at an increased
valuation, and put a handsome amount of money into its treasury through
the kindness of government in promoting this species of land speculation
without risk. Should the property depreciate instead of rising, there
is still time to use it for church purposes, and nothing is lost. Every
other land speculator must at least take some risk; but the church is
playing a sure game and cannot lose. The community pays the bill for the
benefit of the sure-thing gambler. If it be urged that this particular
clause allows the same abuse by any other form of exempted corporation,
the answer is that this only makes the evil all the greater. The clause
would be bad, even if it applied only to corporations rightfully held
exempt from taxation on the property in actual use by them for public
purposes; and the wrong is multiplied by its application to the
churches, which have no legitimate claim to exemption under any
conditions.
Turn now to the last sentence in the law as quoted. This works in two
main ways. In the first place, it is special legislation in favor of the
policy of the Roman Catholic church of placing church properties in the
hands of bishops, over whom there is no adequate check. The congregation
might as well be so many cattle for all the rights they have over the
church property accumulated through their sacrifices. All they are for,
in the eyes of the hierarchy, to which they submit with the docility of
sheep, and less than a sheep's intelligence, is to pay. Contrary to the
entire spirit of self-government, the State of New York endorses this
exploitation and tyranny, and ordains that the irresponsible bishops
shall hold other people's property free from all taxation, to use or
abuse as they see fit. The provision also makes it possible for any
individual to start a church on his own hook, for any ulterior ends
he may see fit, and to maintain sole authority over the property as an
"officer of a religious denomination," thus under the color of religion
to claim divine sanction for the most anti-social ends, and to receive a
subsidy from the state while doing so. Its second use is to complete
the parasitical status of the ordinary parson by exempting his house
and land from taxation, provided only he is not using it to buy and
sell goods, but only for the pretended service of God. When the land
appreciates, he may sell at a profit, and start to "serve God" in a
brand new parsonage, putting into his own pocket the surplus cash thus
sweated from the community. Like the church, he may gamble in land
values to his heart's content. As he pays no taxes, he cannot lose, and
can hold on indefinitely, where the ordinary real estate dealer must
let go his holdings if the market runs against him. The state thus
interposes to favor one land speculator above another, and to tempt
the clergyman to neglect his spiritual duties for financial profit. The
provision is thus an outrage on the community, an unfairness to the real
estate interests, and an injury to whatever is good in religion.