[ritewingwarrior]

I found this interesting in relation to the eminent domain issue. The justification for the taking in New London, was that there was some property that was exempt from taxation, and being a small municipality, they needed more money to survive.

It is my opinion that small governments, that can not support themselves, need to be dissolved. Clearly a 7 sq. mile town, should revert to the county if it can not sustain itself. Many counties in America have unincorporated areas that are developed. Maybe its time for Stafford to revert back to the county, or to find a way of doing business for less.

[redgolum]

So to increase revenue, there needs to be less churches! ED writ large on this one.

[2banana]

But Nilda Martinez, who owns a flower shop between two churches, has had enough. "The churches, they're everywhere here," she said. "There are too many; the city should control it. It hurts the city when you don't have enough businesses paying taxes."

You would think business would be booming for this florist with so many churches nearby. It is a good thing when people WANT to come to your city and build there (just ask the mayors of Philly and Detroit when the opposite happens). This town and it's citizens need to think out of the box to tap into this market.

[MineralMan]

Hmm, that population and that many churches comes to about 385 people per church. I'm not sure what significance that has, but it's an interesting number.

I remember that the church I attended while in high school had about 350 members (there was a board on the wall which listed the number of members, along with the hymns for that service).

I suspect that the number of churches will be self-limiting, based on the population of the town.

But...Stafford, Texas. For some reason, that sounds familiar to me. I just can't put my finger on it.

[mtbopfuyn]

So, why did they give them permits?

[Teacher317]

Methinks they have an excessive number of foolish representatives

[xpertskir]

Church's shouldn't be tax exempt anyways, if there was no government intervention to begin with market forces would sort this out.

[lovecraft]

This place sounds like South Carolina's unofficial motto:

"There's no problem that can't be solved by more God, or more guns."

[winner3000]

Liberals never complain about any other not-for-profits. Somehow it's only churches that are the problem! Typical anti-Religion garbage.

[burroak]

Get the ratio of taverns to churches more in line with that of Milwaukee, WI.

Upside - good revenue generator.
Downside - lower quality of life, greater law enforcement cost.

[Diddle E. Squat]

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.

[Sofa King]

"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.

[bereanway]

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.

[A CA Guy]

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.

[Xenalyte]

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.

[Xenalyte]

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.

[Prysson]

...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.

[LibWrangler]

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

[dmw]

They should open up a bunch of all you can eat buffet restaurants there. After church people tend to flock to these places to pig out. That should help solve some of their problems. ;-)

[Robert A Cook PE]

So, the politically corrupt (er, correct) position on this issue is "ANYTHING to maximize tax receipts" right?

BTW, nothing in here about race or nationality or "faith" of these churches, and I find it a bit difficult to understand why a true faith-based church would MOVE (rebuild) its church in a place where its PEOPEL didn't live.

Any legitimate church is already tax-free, with special minister tax protections, so WHY are these many churches moving here? There is no incentive to build an expensive church based on "tax status" of the city you're in.

[Warren_Piece]

Scarcella is mayor of this Houston-area community, which has 51 churches and other religious institutions packed into its 7 square miles.

Amateurs. Come to Nashville - highest rate of churches per capita in the country.