Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Churches Putting Town Out of Business
Los Angeles Times ^ | 07/31/2006 | Lianne Hart

Posted on 07/31/2006 11:34:01 AM PDT by ritewingwarrior

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-62 next last
To: ritewingwarrior

Scarcella is a grandstanding first-class jerk. On every issue affecting his city he comes out with theatrical claims about how it is going to be the end of the world.


21 posted on 07/31/2006 12:03:47 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MineralMan
I live right next to Stafford, in an even smaller city called Meadows Place. In fact, I still use Stafford as my mailing address. The local post office is in Stafford, and for years we could not get mail in our city unless we used Stafford in our address (our city used to be called Meadows. There was another town in texas called Meadow, and apparently our mail would offten go there, in spite of a wildy different zip code. We changed our town's name to Meadows Place to avoid that, but I never bothered to reprint my checks, drivers license, etc, so I still use Stafford).

However, unlike Stafford, we definitely have a property tax.

22 posted on 07/31/2006 12:06:29 PM PDT by Sans-Culotte (I hereby re-christen the Republican Party as "The Flaccid Party")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: ritewingwarrior

"We respect the Constitution, but 51 of anything is too much."

Where is the money coming from to build all these churches? Whoever is funding them obviously doesn't feel that way.


23 posted on 07/31/2006 12:07:56 PM PDT by Sofa King (A wise man uses compromise as an alternative to defeat. A fool uses it as an alternative to victory.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ritewingwarrior

I knew there were no personal property taxes, state income taxes and taxes on food items in Texas but it seems like most property tax rates are on average pretty high. Stafford sounds like an anomaly that probably won't stay that way for long.


24 posted on 07/31/2006 12:08:22 PM PDT by bereanway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mugs99
The churches don't depend on the population of the town. The worshipers are from out of town. Those churches are bleeding the taxpayers of the town to fatten their own pockets.

I guess the town is also willing to give up the revenue from 51 churches' worth of IHOP receipts, from all those people grabbing a bite to each after service.

25 posted on 07/31/2006 12:17:56 PM PDT by Alex Murphy (Colossians 4:6)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: MineralMan

I'm 99% certain that Stafford is part of Tom DeLay's district. It certainly isn't poor, with a mix of some older middle class neighborhoods, some new middle class subdivisions, and a majority of its land is industrial, retail, or office. So a much lower number of tax users vs. potential tax generators as compared to most Texas towns. Most cities and towns would kill to have their ratio of commercial development.

The old town center (though not historic) is strung out between 2 parallel roads that were converted to one-way operations and operate as Hwy 90. It is a major route connecting DeLay's suburbs to the booming medical center, so TXDOT wanted to upgrade the highway to remove all traffic lights and replace them with grade-separations. The intersections at the center of Stafford is a huge bottleneck at rush hour and weekends, with a very busy railroad track next to the highway that cloggs things up further. The mayor (Scarcella) held up agreements to upgrade this stretch for awhile with all kinds of grandstanding and hyperbole. The offer to grade-separate both the intersection and the railroad all the way through town wasn't enough, he was insisting that the railroad also be rerouted many miles outside the town (at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.) Of course that wasn't going to happen but he succeeded in delaying a much needed project, and in the end got nothing out of it but ink.


26 posted on 07/31/2006 12:21:18 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: ritewingwarrior
Of the 51, how many are traditional with lots of land and a church building and how many are someone's home on a Tuesday night?

51 sites with major churches in seven miles would be a lot if the city can't meet it's funding of street maintenance and other issues.

Seems a new kind of problem to me. Put in a WalMart.
27 posted on 07/31/2006 12:23:24 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Diddle E. Squat

Indeed. DeLay's office is in Stafford.


28 posted on 07/31/2006 12:23:45 PM PDT by Texas_Jarhead (Doing the jobs Americans won't do? Guess you haven't seen "Dirty Jobs")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: ritewingwarrior; HoustonCurmudgeon

HC perhaps can speak to this better than I can, having been an adult and presumably paying attention during the years in question, two advantages I lack.

I grew up in Missouri City, which adjoins Stafford. Those two and Sugar Land are a large chunk of suburban southwest Houston known as Fort Bend.

Missouri City is a bedroom community, and Sugar Land at the time was as well, except it also had the Imperial sugar factory (which closed in the late '90s, I think). Stafford was where all the industry was.

When Stafford broke out of the Fort Bend Independent School District in the mid-'80s and formed its own district, there was much consternation in Fort Bend since most of the taxpaying businesses were in Stafford, and the new district would be overfunded by all those tax dollars, while Fort Bend would go wanting.

Given this, and the state of Stafford High last time I drove by, I'm guessing the worries were for naught.


29 posted on 07/31/2006 12:26:41 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ritewingwarrior

I will further note that in college, I worked at a full-service car wash several doors down from the Evangelical Formosan Church, and it was a lot closer geographically to the no-tell motel than to the muffler shop. The guys who worked with me weren't that sure it was an actual church.

Also, I would like the record to show that I have no freakin' clue what Jesus House Texas is.


30 posted on 07/31/2006 12:28:16 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MineralMan

If it sounds familiar to you, you must have been there.

There is absolutely nothing of note in Stafford, Texas.

Except Jesus House Texas, perhaps.


31 posted on 07/31/2006 12:29:51 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: MineralMan

The large majority of Stafford residents are Hispanic and attend one of its two Catholic churches (which have both been there for many a year and are not the sort of church discussed in the article). Both have sizable congregations.


32 posted on 07/31/2006 12:31:49 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: ritewingwarrior
...small governments, that can not support themselves, need to be dissolved.

Bingo

Thats the bottom line here. Governments dont exist to generate revenue and they shouldnt be implimenting their policies based on maximizing their revenue stream.
33 posted on 07/31/2006 12:31:57 PM PDT by Prysson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Diddle E. Squat

This Scarcella guy sounds like a world-class goon. And here I thought that Keith Woods character from Brookshire was the worst local politician ever!


34 posted on 07/31/2006 12:33:36 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: 2banana

> This town and it's citizens need to think out of the box to tap into this market.

Indeed: tax the churches, just like any other business.


35 posted on 07/31/2006 12:34:25 PM PDT by orionblamblam (I'm interested in science and preventing its corruption, so here I am.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: redgolum

51 CHURCHES in a 7 mile area...I'd say that was excessive...


36 posted on 07/31/2006 12:38:01 PM PDT by Hildy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Xenalyte
The large majority of Stafford residents are Hispanic and attend one of its two Catholic churches (which have both been there for many a year and are not the sort of church discussed in the article). Both have sizable congregations.

Even before you wrote this, I suspected that the word "churches" was a codeword for "non-northwestern European-Americans" or some other perceived social defect, such as "Catholic" or "poor."

37 posted on 07/31/2006 12:38:25 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (Got freedom? Thank a veteran)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Xenalyte

"If it sounds familiar to you, you must have been there.

There is absolutely nothing of note in Stafford, Texas.
"

Actually, I just figured out why the name was familiar. It's the location of American Caging, Inc., the money-handling company that's been linked to the Simcox/Keyes organizations, along with other non-profits.

I don't suppose that means anything, but I just couldn't figure out why I recognized the name of some obscure Houston 'burb. It was driving me nuts.


38 posted on 07/31/2006 12:39:43 PM PDT by MineralMan (non-evangelical atheist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Xenalyte
Here in Michigan a guy declared his house and small farm was a church, to get out of paying property taxes.

They investigated to find no church or meeting place, just a house/barns/garage.

He was working on a car in the garage when they showed up and questioned where he held services, he wiped the oil off his hands, opened a tool box and took out a Bible, "Right here" he replied, and he read from the Bible until they left.

He still pays no property taxes, and will hold services at any time, day/night that anyone challenges the fact that its a church!
39 posted on 07/31/2006 12:41:17 PM PDT by Beagle8U (Liberals get up every morning and eat a big box of "STUPID" for breakfast)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: ritewingwarrior; catholicfreeper

This is very interesting to me because I was just reading a thread earlier that mentioned Stafford in relation to the Minutemen association.


40 posted on 07/31/2006 12:42:09 PM PDT by LibWrangler
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-62 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson