Just what the 5th highest taxed state needs...
Where was the last 3M plant built ?
More states should pass voter referendums outlawing their state income taxes.
Gee, why don't they just take more donations from their flocks and donate it to the state? Oh wait, they probably have really large legal fees right now.
Republicans control the Governor's mansion and the House, so there is little chance of a tax increase happening.
Easy for bishops to say, as they don't pay taxes. The Church neither. I say for them to get their own house in order first. Here in Spokane they are bankrupt.
I'm all for removing the tax exempt status of the Catholic Church if they're going to do this.
And good luck getting another dime out of me.
Well, I think these Catholic prelates need to ask the state to tax Catholic church properties so they can do their fair share for the poor. Just leave the present tax payers alone, please.
They are "contributing" more than enough.
Who let these leftie Bishops out of their cage?
The Catholic Church used to help "the poor and vulnerable," but have been spending more of the parishoners money on molestation victims lately.....
Reason #452 why my Bishop doesn't get any money from me. I don't recall him saying squat about abortion during the election, but now when we don't need him, here he is.
patent
Well Padre, maybe you should sell off those empty inner city parishes and donate the money to the poor. Oh, I forgot, you need to pay off the victims of the Lavendar Brotherhood.
Hmmph. Catholic should be in quotes. The people paying those higher taxes won't be the rich Kerry types. Nor will it be the poor on the dole. It will be the middle class and the working poor. I guess Minnesota wants to emulate Massachusetts as the great commie bastion that it is. Barf. And, yes, I'm sure there will be questions about the tax status of the church and priests, but that will only hurt the work of the good priests and churches who haven't gone all leftie.
call me cynical, but I've always thought liberal bishops like this want the govt to take care of everything so the Church doesn't have to do its traditional duty of helping the poor anymore. Laziness and greed, pure and simple.
I'm sure the liberals are applauding this, but if these bishops were saying the govt needs to crack down on abortion, you'd hear nothing but hysterical cries of "separation of church and state!"
Human "needs" are infinite. Social resources are not. Using the state to redistribute wealth and income is a dangerous weapon to wield. It has two edges and may come back to injure the user when in other hands. Why doesn't the Catholic hierarchy call on a massive Church-led effort to use private philanthropy to meet these perceived "needs"? Why do they rely on the coercive power of the state?
haha...these priests dont even pay income taxes...what a jerk.
dont they know they are biting the hand that feeds them...do they think that if people give more money to the gov that they will continue to fund the church?
what an economic idiot.
I have a radical idea: Why don't they police their screwed-up mess of an AmChurch, call for a return to Catholic faith, purge the Church of sodomite predators and mind their proper business instead of acting like neo-commies?
No need for Catholic bashing on this thread. These bishops are not really speaking for the Church, but only for their mixed-up selves.
There was a late nineteenth century American novelist named Winston Churchill (yes, a different one) who wrote a wonderful series of historical novels from colonial times on down. They are well worth reading. One of these novels, I disremember the particular title at the moment, tells the story of a crucial historical event that took place in the late nineteenth century. A dedicated young Protestant clergyman tries to help the poor of his parish, but finds it to be a losing job and demeaning to the recipients. Suddenly he has a bright idea! Let the government do it!
It was about that time that Americans decided that government could do a better job with the poor than the churches could, and they have seldom looked back since. It's not just a Catholic problem. In fact, the worst people in this regard have been the mainline Protestants. Catholics and Evangelicals still do some genuine missionary and charitable activities, but the liberals prefer to soak the taxpayers. Regretably many Catholic bishops have joined the throng.
The Bishops should identify a goal (help the poor) not how to achieve the goal (taxes). Some staff product of St. John's, St. Thomas, St. Bennedict's, or St. Catherine's (I suspect the latter) got hold of the Bishop's signature machine.
Isn't that Marian Wright Edelman's "non-profit", where her most significant action was to place her idiot son in the #2 slot, to suck off of the government teat?
My view?
In the inimitable words of Teeeereza Heinz Kerry - Shove It!