Can a church claim a Maine property tax exemption for the remote mountain site where it keeps its radio station antenna, on the theory that the broadcast is an extension of its ministry?

Plain-English summary

David Ledew at the Maine Bureau of Taxation Property Tax Division asked the AG's office whether a property tax exemption was available for the Passadumkeag Mountain site, in the unorganized territory of Grand Falls, where the Bangor Baptist Church kept the antenna for its radio station WHCF. The church argued that the radio broadcast was an extension of its ministry and that the term "houses of religious worship" in 36 M.R.S.A. § 652(1)(G) should be read broadly enough to cover the antenna site. Assistant Attorney General Diane E. Doyen disagreed. The State Tax Assessor could continue to assess property tax against the church-owned antenna site.

The analysis ran through three steps. First, Maine's interpretive rule. The Law Court has long required strict, not liberal, construction of tax exemption statutes. Silverman v. Town of Alton, 451 A.2d 103 (Me. 1982), and Pentecostal Assembly v. Maidlow, 414 A.2d 891 (Me. 1980), confirm that taxation is the rule and exemption is the exception. The party seeking exemption bears the burden. That alone meant that any plausible reading that left the antenna outside the exemption would prevail over a broader one.

Second, the structure of § 652. The statute has many subsections, each calibrated to a different category of organization. Subsection (1)(A) covers benevolent and charitable institutions and uses broad language: "real estate and personal property owned and occupied or used solely for their own purposes." Subsection (1)(G), the one the church invoked, is narrower. It enumerates specific kinds of real and personal property tied to religious societies (houses of worship, vestries, pews and furniture, parsonages up to $20,000 in value, and personal property within the parsonage up to $6,000). The narrowness was deliberate. The Osteopathic Hospital of Maine v. City of Portland, 139 Me. 24, 26 A.2d 641 (1942), confirmed that the religious-society exemption could not be borrowed from the broader benevolent-and-charitable provision. The text speaks of church edifices and parsonages of limited value, not "all property a religious society uses."

Third, parallel authority from sister states. Massachusetts (59 M.G.L.A. § 5, clause eleventh) and Connecticut (12 C.G.S.A. § 12-81(13)) have houses-of-worship exemptions in nearly identical form. Evangelical Baptist B & M Society v. City of Boston, 204 Mass. 28 (1910), said the exemption applied to "ordinary church edifices, owned and used in the usual way for religious worship." Masonic Building Association of Stamford v. Town of Stamford, 119 Conn. 53 (1934), and Town of Woodstock v. The Retreat, 125 Conn. 52 (1938), read the Connecticut statute the same way, requiring that a building be a "place of public worship" before the exemption attached. Both jurisdictions treat the statute as reaching the building "commonly designated as a church," together with land for ingress, egress, and parking. None of the authority stretches that to a remote broadcast transmitter and antenna.

Doyen acknowledged that the City of Bangor had stopped taxing the radio station building next to the church itself, apparently accepting the church's "extension of ministry" theory. The AG memo did not endorse that city-level decision. The opinion's holding is squarely that the Grand Falls antenna site falls outside § 652(1)(G), and the State Tax Assessor retained authority under 36 M.R.S.A. § 302 to assess and collect tax on the Passadumkeag Mountain property.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1989. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Why didn't the radio antenna qualify as a 'house of religious worship'?

The Law Court reads § 652(1)(G) strictly and limits "houses of religious worship" to ordinary church edifices used for public worship, together with closely related land for ingress, egress, and parking. A broadcast transmitter and antenna on a remote mountain in a different town is not a church building and is not used for public worship in the ordinary sense.

Why didn't the broader 'benevolent and charitable' exemption help?

Subsection (1)(A) covers benevolent and charitable institutions and reaches "real estate and personal property owned and occupied or used solely for their own purposes." But Osteopathic Hospital of Maine v. City of Portland (1942) held that the broader subsection (1)(A) language cannot be borrowed by a religious society claiming under subsection (1)(G). The two exemptions are calibrated to different categories of organization, and religious purposes are not equated with benevolent and charitable purposes for property-tax purposes.

What rule of construction did the AG apply?

Strict construction. Silverman v. Town of Alton, 451 A.2d 103, 105 (1982), restates the rule that taxation is the norm and exemption the exception. Pentecostal Assembly v. Maidlow, 414 A.2d 891, 893 (1980), puts the burden of establishing exemption on the taxpayer. Doubts go to the taxing authority.

What about the radio station building next to the church?

The City of Bangor had stopped taxing that building, apparently treating the radio station as an extension of the church's ministry. The AG opinion did not endorse that municipal decision, and Doyen's analysis would have pointed the other way. But the opinion's holding addresses only the Grand Falls antenna site, not the Bangor-located broadcast building.

Who assessed property tax in Grand Falls?

The State Tax Assessor, under 36 M.R.S.A. § 302. Grand Falls was an unorganized township at the time, so it did not have a municipal assessor; the state assumed that role.

Background and statutory framework

Maine's property-tax exemption framework lives in 36 M.R.S.A. § 652. Subsection (1)(A) reaches benevolent and charitable institutions broadly. Subsection (1)(G) reaches religious societies narrowly, enumerating houses of worship, vestries, pews, furniture, and parsonages with capped values. The Law Court's strict-construction rule and its 1942 decision in Osteopathic Hospital of Maine v. City of Portland keep these subsections in separate lanes. Massachusetts and Connecticut have closely parallel statutes, and their courts have likewise held that "houses of worship" means ordinary church edifices used for public worship. The 1989 memo applies these settled principles to a radio antenna sited many miles from the sponsoring church, in unorganized territory under state assessment.

Citations

• 36 M.R.S.A. § 302
• 36 M.R.S.A. § 652(1)(G)
• 36 M.R.S.A. § 652(1)(A)
• Silverman v. Town of Alton, 451 A.2d 103, 105 (Me. 1982)
• Pentecostal Assembly v. Maidlow, 414 A.2d 891, 893-94 (Me. 1980)
• Osteopathic Hospital of Maine v. City of Portland, 139 Me. 24, 29-30, 26 A.2d 641 (1942)
• 59 M.G.L.A. § 5, clause eleventh (1988) (Massachusetts)
• Evangelical Baptist B & M Society v. City of Boston, 204 Mass. 28, 90 N.E. 572 (1910)
• 12 C.G.S.A. § 12-81(13) (1983) (Connecticut)
• Masonic Bldg. Assoc. of Stamford v. Town of Stamford, 119 Conn. 53, 174 A. 301 (1934)
• Town of Woodstock v. The Retreat, 125 Conn. 52, 3 A.2d 232 (1938)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.maine.gov/legis/lawlib/lldl/agops/agops.htm
• Original PDF: https://lldc.mainelegislature.org/Open/AG/Opinions/1989/ag_19890321.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain, the linked PDF is authoritative.

Department of Attorney General

MEMORANDUM

To: David Ledew, Property Tax Division, Bureau of Taxation
From: Diane E. Doyen, Assistant Attorney General
Date: March 21, 1989
Subject: Bangor Baptist Church: Application for Exemption From Property Taxation

You have asked that this office issue a legal opinion concerning the application by the Bangor Baptist Church for property tax exemption on that real estate owned by the Church upon which a radio station antenna is presently located. It is my understanding that the property in question is located in an entirely different town from the site of the Church itself. The property in question is located in Grand Falls, an unorganized township over which the State Tax Assessor has direct responsibility for assessment in collection of taxes pursuant to 36 M.R.S.A. § 302.

The Bangor Baptist Church is seeking exemption from tax on this property pursuant to the provisions of 36 M.R.S.A. § 652(1)(G). Section 652 provides for the exemption from taxation of property owned by certain institutions and organizations. Sub-section 1(G) provides in pertinent part that:

Houses of religious worship, including vestries, and the pews and furniture within the same; ... ; and property owned and used by a religious society as a parsonage to the value of $20,000, and personal property [within the parsonage] not exceeding $6,000 in value, ... For purposes of the tax exemption provided by this paragraph a parsonage shall mean the principal residence provided by religious society for its clergymen.

Clearly the property in question does not fall within the exemption for parsonage. Bangor Baptist Church argues that the term "houses of religious worship" should be liberally construed to encompass the property in question. However, a liberal construction of taxation statutes is contrary to the long-standing policy followed by the Maine Law Court in tax matters.

The Law Court's policy of construing tax exemption statutes strictly is one of long duration. Silverman v. Town of Alton, 451 A.2d 103, 105 (1982). Taxation is the rule and tax exemption is the exception. Pentecostal Assembly, Etc. v. Maidlow, 414 A.2d 891, 893 (1980). An exemption is not to be extended to situations that are not clearly within the scope of the statutory provisions. See Silverman at 105. The person seeking an exemption from taxation has the burden of establishing the exemption. Pentecostal Assembly, supra at 893.

It is important to bear in mind that Maine's property exemption statute, 36 M.R.S.A. § 652, is divided into numerous subsections, with different provisions governing tax exemption for different types of institutions and organizations. There are essential differences in these subsections. As a result, the tax exemption allowed one type of institution/organization is not equivalent to the exemption created for another institution/organization. The Osteopathic Hospital of Maine v. City of Portland, 139 Me. 24, 29, 26 A.2d 641 (1942).

These differences can be most clearly illustrated if one juxtaposes the provisions of subsection A (benevolent and charitable institutions) against those of subsection G (religious organizations). Subsection A makes tax exempt the "real estate and personal property owned and occupied or used solely for their own purposes by benevolent and charitable institutions incorporated by this State...." As quoted earlier, subsection G contains no mention of the broad terms real estate and personal property. Instead, that provision narrowly sets forth specified real and personal property which are exempted.

The main focus of the latter provision is to exempt the church or house of worship and a parsonage of limited value. Osteopathic Hospital, supra at 29. Only that real estate together with furnishings of limited value therein are exempt from property tax. It is not possible to extend the broader provisions of paragraph A to religious societies. Id. at 30. In Maine law it is well settled that, for purposes of property tax exemption, religious purposes are not to be equated with benevolent and charitable purposes. Pentecostal Assembly, supra at 894.

The Osteopathic Hospital case, which I have cited above, is the only Maine case which discusses to any extent the provisions of section 652(1)(G). That case quotes with approval several rulings of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in cases in which that court was interpreting the corresponding Mass. statute. The Mass. statute is very similar to Maine's statute and reads as follows:

The following property shall be exempt from taxation....

Eleventh, Notwithstanding the provisions of any other general or special law to the contrary, houses of religious worship owned by, or held in trust for the use of, any religious organization, and the pews and furniture and each parsonage so owned, ... , but such exemption shall not, except as herein provided, extend to any portion of any such house of religious worship appropriated for purposes other than religious worship or instruction....

59 M.G.L.A. § 5, clause eleventh (1988).

The primary Mass. case interpreting this statute is an old one but has never been overruled or otherwise revised; it is Evangelical Baptist B & M Society v. City of Boston, 204 Mass. 28, 90 N.E. 572 (1910). That case states that the purpose of the Massachusetts statute was to exempt from taxation ordinary church edifices, owned and used in the usual way for religious worship. It further states that the exemption is only for houses of worship owned and occupied by religious organizations and used by them for public worship. 204 Mass. 28, 31, 90 N.E. 572, 573. Basically, the Court ruled that the exemption is intended to apply to such buildings as are commonly designated as churches.

The State of Connecticut also has a statute similar to the ones in Maine and Massachusetts. It reads in pertinent part:

The following described property shall be exempt from taxation:

(13). Houses of religious worship...., houses of religious worship, the land upon which they stand, their pews, furniture and equipment owned by, or held in trust for the use of, any religious organization;

12 C.G.S.A. § 12-81, sub-sec. 13 (1983).

The Supreme Court of Connecticut has interpreted the foregoing statute in like manner to the Mass. Court. In fact, the Connecticut Court has found the language of the Connecticut statute is suggestive of having been taken from the Massachusetts statute. In the case of Masonic Bldg. Assoc. of Stamford v. Town of Stamford, 119 Conn. 53, 174 A. 301 (1934), the court defines houses of religious worship to be buildings having those essential characteristics of churches. 174 A. 301, 304. The court found that the use of the word "pews" in the statute to be supportive of that interpretation.

In a later decision, the court found that:

The conception that, to be entitled to an exemption, a building devoted to religious uses should be a place of public worship is implicit in the theory of exemption of such buildings.

Town of Woodstock v. The Retreat, 125 Conn. 52, 3 A.2d 232, 234 (1938).

The exemption for houses of religious worship is intended to apply to such buildings as are commonly designated as churches. Id.

The taxpayer Bangor Baptist Church argues that the radio station WHCF (including the antenna necessary to broadcast the station's programs) is an extension of their ministry. They claim exemption from tax pursuant to 36 M.R.S.A. § 652(1)(G), arguing that the term "houses of religious worship" must be liberally construed to encompass the radio station and its attendant parts. The City of Bangor has accepted this argument and no longer taxes the property which houses the radio station, located adjacent to the church building.

As I have detailed in this opinion, my research leads me to the opposite conclusion. Tax exemption statutes traditionally have been given strict, rather than liberal, construction by the Law Court. The term "house of religious worship" means an ordinary church edifice in which a religious organization conducts public worship. It includes the land upon which the building stands together with that land sufficient to permit normal ingress and egress and parking. It does not include property which houses a radio station, its transmitter, antenna, et al.

It is my opinion that the property in question, located on Passadumkeag Mountain in Grand Falls, is not exempt from taxation under any provision of Maine law. The State Tax Assessor may continue to assess taxes on that property to the owner Bangor Baptist Church.

DED/vv