The Western Baptist Church will be forced to close its campground in Mountain View County after losing its tax exemption on the property, a Calgary pastor told council's policies and priorities committee on Aug. 24.ìWe won't be able to use it anymore because we won't be able to afford to pay the taxes,î Pastor Michael Martin said after hearing the county's rationale for the loss of the campground's exemption.The church was charged this year for property taxes, worth about $5,000, after being denied its exemption, along with the Mountain View Marksman Association, under the criteria of the Community Organization Property Tax Exemption Regulation (COPTER).In the campground's case, administration had recommended council reconsider the exemption because the property is used exclusively by church members, not the general public.Martin appeared before P&P to ask for the exemption to be reinstated, noting the church has leased the campground property for 18 years and ìwe've never paid any taxes on it.îThe campground, located south of Water Valley near the Rocky View County boundary, ìwas set up for the edification of families of Western Baptist Church,î Martin said.Deputy reeve Bruce Beattie, who chairs P&P, explained that council went through the list of exemptions ìand yours came up and didn't meet our criteria for the policy.îDiv. 2 Coun. Trish McKean asked Martin if the campground was open to the public.ìNo it's not, ma'am,î he said.ìIf it was open to county residents then it would be tax free,î McKean said.ìIf we did that,î Martin said, ìwe would be breaking our lease with the provincial government.îWhen the decision was made in April, Beattie further explained, ìas a council we felt it was only fair that everyone pulled their weight in this respect. It was an attempt to be consistent.îConfirming that the exemption was no longer in effect, Martin said he would move to cancel the lease due to the church's inability to pay the tax amount.Beattie advised him that he could still appeal the tax assessment.In April, continuing exemptions were granted for this year only to the Carstairs Gun Club, Lone Pine Clay Target Club and the Thorncliffe Greenview Community Association ñ which were deemed eligible under COPTER ñ but under a new policy the county will end discretionary tax exemptions for non-profit groups in 2012.Instead, it will encourage organizations that have received exemptions before or become eligible in the future to apply for grants under the county's Rural Community Recreation Grant program, which council increased by $10,000 ñ mostly from revenue saved by denying the Marksman and Western Baptist Church requests.
