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Wallkill Valley Times , Wednesday , June 8 , 2016
Watchtower base expands in region
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said Dennis Ketcham , the town ’ s New York State sole assessor . Ketcham is also president of the New York State Assessors ’ Association .
“ They receive lumber and construction materials there ,” he said . “ I understand they are prefabbing portions of walls and bathrooms and shipping them to Warwick . That doesn ’ t appear to be a religious use .”
Watchtower appealed to the town ’ s Board of Assessment Review , but the board upheld Ketcham ’ s decision . The Witnesses then appealed to the Orange County Supreme Court . “ At that point , the town decided it didn ’ t want to pursue the matter ,” Ketcham said .
Town of Montgomery Supervisor Michael Hayes was asked why the town decided to drop the case . “ When you get into a lawsuit , you have to weigh the financial pluses and minuses ,” said Hayes . “ The attorneys that we had who were handling the case did the research and found Watchtower very rarely lost in these cases . The courts have had a liberal interpretation of the exemptions .”
“ We weighed the pros and cons ,” said Hayes , and the town came to a decision that was best for everybody .”
So far , the Witnesses have not performed charitable works in the Town of Montgomery , said Hayes . “ I believe they will ,” he said . “ We reached out and there was a discussion about possible projects in the future .”
Witnesses have historically contributed to the municipalities in which they own property , he noted , and sometimes their good works go unnoticed by residents . “ They are not in it for the publicity ,” Hayes said . However , their charity is limited . Ketcham explained Watchtower purchased the Bracken Road property two days before the state taxable-status deadline . “ They bought it less than 48 hours before the New York State taxable-status date , which is March 1 of every year ,” Ketcham said . “ Basically , it means they went from the closing table to my office and claimed religious use .”
A non-tax-exempt property owner would have paid $ 80,692 in town and county taxes for the property in 2016 , said Ketcham , and $ 205,329 in taxes to the Valley Central School District for the 2015-2016 school year .
“ They come into a remote area and take a large property from the assessment roll ,” Ketcham said . “ The town residents and other town taxpayers have to pick up that burden on a one-to-one basis .”
Watchtower Farms
Watchtower ’ s largest property in the region , by far , is Watchtower Farms in the Town of Shawangunk . The property is comprised of about a dozen parcels amounting to more than 1,100 acres of pristine countryside .
Watchtower bought the first parcel in the early 70s and began its printing operations there a few years later , said longtime Town of Shawangunk Tax Assessor Curt Schoeberl . “ This entire parcel is all in the Pine Bush school district ,” he said .
Watchtower is exempt from paying school taxes – which , without the exemption , would have totaled $ 3.4 million alone for the Pine Bush Central School District in 2016 , said Schoeberl . Town and county taxes would have totaled $ 1.5 million in 2016 , he said .
“ They are a very large fish in a small pond ,” Schoeberl
The entrance to Watchtower ’ s property on Bracken Road in the Town of Montgomery .
said . “ They are exercising their rights under the law by being a wholly-exempt organization . But , they realize it ’ s better for the community if they do pay some taxes .”
According to Schoeberl , the Witnesses will pay approximately $ 130,000 in town , county and school taxes for Town of Shawangunk properties in 2016 . “ They do this strictly in a voluntary basis ,” he added .
Unlike some religious groups with tax-exempt status – the Kiryas Joel community in Monroe , for example – the Witnesses do not put children through the public school system , said the assessor .
“ There are no school-aged children on that farm ,” he said . “ They are there to work . They are not putting any kind of burden on the school system . Other groups do and don ’ t pay a dime .”
Global in scale
Schoeberl visited Watchtower Farms several years ago on a tour with a group of other tax assessors . The property included a large printing facility , a dining hall , worker housing , a well and sewer system . “ They said , ‘ We don ’ t want people to think we ’ re hiding something ,’” Schoeberl recalled . “ They were very cordial .”
The Witnesses have performed “ hundreds of thousands of dollars ’ worth ” of charitable works in the town , said Schoeberl . They did the lion ’ s share of the work to build Verkeerder Kill Park in Walker Valley , he said . Recently , they helped build Galeville Park .
“ They demoed the old town hall building ,” Schoeberl said , hauled away debris and prepared the site for the new town hall in 2010 . “ They hooked everything up at our temporary mobile offices .”
Schoeberl admits being impressed with the Witnesses ’ can-do spirit . “ If you take a group like Watchtower and look at what they ’ ve accomplished , it is absolutely amazing ,” he said .
There were lawsuits shortly after Watchtower arrived to the town in the 70s , Schoeberl said , but “ they were settled before they went to court .”
“ When a big organization comes along in a fairly rural area , it ’ s hard for people to understand the religious exemption , especially in terms of something on that scale ,” Schoeberl said .
The Jehovah ’ s Witnesses now operate on a global scale with offices in places such as the United Kingdom , Canada , Brazil , Mexico , Australia , Germany and France , where the Watchtower Society won an appeal in 2012 over taxes it paid the French government . In the end , the government of France was ordered to repay the organization more than $ 8 million in tax funds , fees and legal expenses .
Watchtower continues to expand in the Hudson Valley . Its impact on local communities varies in each municipality , said Schoeberl , comparing the towns of Shawangunk and Newburgh .
“ Here , they took rural , vacant property and built it to their needs ,” he said . “ There , they took a taxable property that was used for commercial purposes to house their people . Then they claimed exemption .”