Kinman on Nuci's Space

Athens-Clarke County District Four Commissioner Alice Kinman said she welcomed the call for clarity regarding the Nuci's Space case, though she was understanding of the decision made by the Court of Appeals ...

The issue has never been with Nuci's Space itself, which no one disputes is a legitimate non-profit doing valuable work in the community. The issue is with what the law says about who gets to be exempt from property taxes. Georgia law is clear that property tax exemptions are an exception and should only be allowed when property is being used solely to carry out the non-profit's mission in a way that benefits the public. The Salvation Army thrift store is deemed to meet this requirement because in selling low-cost items it is directly carrying out its mission of benefiting low-income individuals. Nuci's Space, however, uses its space at times for private parties (which events obviously do not benefit the public). While the income from these rentals goes back into Nuci's Space's mission, the activity itself does not carry out its mission.

Here's how I understand it: If Nuci's Space had been granted their exemption by the Board of Assessors, then another entity could come along and, say, buy a hotel downtown and use the income from that to help fund its non-profit activities. While the non-profit activities might benefit the community, the community is also harmed by valuable property being taken off the tax rolls. Only if the property were being used in a way that directly benefited the community would that loss of taxable property be justified.

An honest answer, and I appreciate the straight talk. That said, I simply disagree with Kinman on this matter, which is a rather odd position to be in given my admiration of her.

The ruling by the Court of Appeals, coupled with Kinman's suggestion that the fundraising means employed by Nuci's Space are somehow less than equal than those employed by The Salvation Army is purely subjective. For instance, First Baptist Church of Athens parks cars for Georgia football home games, and that's narrowly targeted too.

For me, the clear intent of the law was to allow organizations like Nuci's Space to partake in those types of creative ways at generating funding for their organizations. I can concede that the law might have been somewhat imperfect - and if somone like Rep. Doug McKillip can get us some clarity on the matter that's great - but it seems that were nit-picking for the sake of nit-picking at times.