By: Rich Bergeron
MUCH ADO ABOUT A NOTHING BURGER...A SHAKESPEARIAN TRAGEDY STARRING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE BOARD OF TAX AND LAND APPEALS
The state of New Hampshire's Board of Tax and Land Appeals seemed pretty serious when I first alerted them to what I knew about a major tax issue with Legionaries of Christ properties in Center Harbor, NH. They ultimately held a marathon 4-hour hearing on January 6, 2023. The hearing included in-depth witness testimony.
Due to my help exposing the issue and chronicling the story for the public, I was even granted permission from the BTLA to film the hearing.
Unfortunately, I was only able to video record the first half of the hearing with two different cameras. Here are those video links:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1aadu1tyuibo7v/MVI_9002.MOV?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bxb01pui8fqxac/20230106_112108.mp4?dl=0
I recently obtained the full hearing audio, including crucial witness testimony on who was using the LOC properties in Center Harbor over the years and how they were being used.
"Is it fair to the taxpayers of the town..." began a couple queries from BTLA Chairwoman Michele E. LeBrun for both the Legionaries of Christ attorney at the hearing and the legal representative for the Town of Center Harbor. She was trying to get to the heart of the issue of whether or not Center Harbor residents should effectively be held liable for the mistakes made by LC Center Harbor in not filing for tax exemptions properly and Center Harbor officials for not issuing tax bills for years in which exemptions were improperly granted.
"No" answered Laura Spector-Morgan, on behalf of the town. She didn't waste any time on nuances.
Erin S. Bucksbaum, the head lawyer for LC Center Harbor gave a much more rambling answer. She ultimately would not outright blame the town, but she did say the town should have notified the Legionaries earlier of the requirement to submit tax exempt paperwork for each year.
Center Harbor's Attorney Spector-Morgan later admitted repeatedly that the town should have issued tax bills for Legionaries of Christ properties for each year tax exempt paperwork was not provided by the sect. Attorney Bucksbaum had to re-explain her own position at least a dozen times. She admitted the proper paperwork was not submitted but maintained the properties still served tax exempt purposes during the years they received unwarranted exemptions.
Board Member Theresa M. Walker had some of the most poignant questions and remarks in this snippet from the first half of the hearing:
Walker's most potent zinger revolved around the fact that the use of the property itself should be considered "irrelevant" as far as her reading of the legal statutes on such exemptions. A literal reading of the main points of law on these exemptions does focus intently on the paperwork required for all tax exemptions for charitable or religious purposes. Essentially, state law stipulates if the tax exemption paperwork is not properly filed every year and no valid excuse for why it hasn't been filed is presented in a timely fashion, the entity should be liable to pay those taxes.
A footnote in the resulting order entered after this hearing even flatly states: "By law, timely and complete property tax exemption applications for religious, charitable and educational organizations must be filed by April 15 and processed and reviewed annually in each municipality. (See, e.g., RSA 72:23, RSA 72:23-c and RSA 72:34.)"
If Walker's argument is right, the board was simply wasting their time making all their assorted inquiries into the use of the property over the period of the automatically granted exemptions given to LC Center Harbor for all the years they did not even file paperwork for them.
If there is no paperwork, there can be no exemption as far as the law goes. In other words, the law is not designed to analyze whether or not an entity who did not file was technically "entitled" to the exemption. It is only designed to analyze whether or not the entity filed a timely application for the exemption or had a valid excuse for filing late if it was not able to file a timely application. The Legionaries of Christ did not present circumstances to justify late filing of paperwork and they did not file timely paperwork for the years in question.
Walker also had the best line of the entire hearing when she stated: "If LC isn't paying their proportionate share, everybody else has to pay more, and I'm struggling to find a way to figure out if that's justice in this case."
A slam dunk judgment for the total value of all the ineligible exemptions granted LC Center Harbor was what I expected, especially considering the way witnesses and attorneys were grilled by the board members. Those board members at the hearing were on point, persistent, and relentless in suggesting that the Legionaries of Christ basically unjustly enriched themselves by way of receiving tax exemptions they did not qualify for under state law. Each series of questions from each panel member seemed to be repeatedly chipping away at every defense that could possibly be applied by the LC Center Harbor legal team. The words "beating a dead horse" were even uttered by the Chairwoman at one point in the hearing.
At some point these same aggressive board members transformed into timid souls feigning a lack of power and no real authority to act at all on the issue. By the time they wrote the final word on the subject, they had given up on securing any real justice for Center Harbor taxpayers who had to pay the tab for LC Center Harbor's delinquency. If both Center Harbor officials and LC Center Harbor were equally at fault, they should have also shared equal accountability and punishment. Instead they were both equally spared and not even given a slap on the wrist.
I received the BTLA's rambling and hard to reconcile decision on the issue a few months ago. The panel, which wasted so much time and taxpayer revenue researching and nailing down the facts on this one, chose to ultimately chalk it up to a basic misunderstanding. No harm no foul, basically. I was disappointed to say the least.
It reminded me of one of those situations where a prosecutor is found to be corrupt, but the whole scandal gets covered up for fear of all of his cases being overturned. It was as if the BTLA realized this case might be a microcosm of a much larger, out of control problem plaguing the whole state of New Hampshire. If they levied a fine against one perpetrator, they would be duty bound to pursue returns of all such undue exemptions. The order itself confirms this sentiment on page 11:
"...the deficiencies in assessing practices relative to institutional exemptions may be widespread and not limited to these three municipalities."
The BTLA order ends by officially passing the buck to the Assessing Standards Board (ASB) and the Department of Revenue and Administration (DRA). The panel even suggests work be accomplished to promote "legislation to strengthen the enforcement mechanisms pertaining to institutional (religious, charitable and educational) exemptions and other criteria contained in the standards established by the ASB."
Just what we need, further unproductive, expensive and useless analysis and investigation of an open and shut case that should have already resulted in the payment of a boatload of back taxes.
The members of the BTLA basically threw their hands up and wrote their order as an educational pamphlet of sorts for all jurisdictions to be wary of the issue and make sure all paperwork on exemptions is in order. They also refused to even explore or contemplate the idea that they could rule tax payments were in order for improperly granted exemptions that Legionaries of Christ officials never filed for. I think the law is more than clear on this subject. If the paperwork never comes through, the taxes are due.
A popular piece of advice in terms of sports and life is a loss is really a win as long as you learn something from it. However, in this case, there were no losers intimately involved in the proceedings enough to learn anything. The taxpayers of the State of New Hampshire were the true losers here. Most of them have no idea this is how their money is being spent: on giant nothing burgers like this one spread out all across the entire spectrum of our state government. Outright wild goose chase inquiries pursued only for appearances and entertainment aren't the exception to the rule. Each and every day they are slowly morphing into the rule itself across this country.
The taxpayers have to foot the bill for this entire dog and pony show that had the state BTLA chasing its own tail. The whole convoluted process supposedly designed to hold the town of Center Harbor and the Legionaries of Christ accountable accomplished absolutely nothing, but it did so at great expense.
I think it did more harm than good, as the final decision was a public service announcement of sorts, letting other violators know the hammer would not be coming down on them anytime soon, either. It was almost as if the BTLA members were giving every offender blanket immunity for all past offenses.
So, what exactly could the losers here possibly learn to make this a win? Lesson number one is the government is hopeless when it comes to accountability. More often than not, the whole "investigation" of a situation like this by a government agency only takes place to maintain appearances of fairness and justice. It's a total waste of time and money for this to always result in the tried-and-true political conclusion: "We looked into it, and we can't really find anything that would justify taking action or assessing formal punishment." For me, it was the equivalent of, "I'd love to help you, son, but you're too young to vote."
The reality is the board itself got some free publicity for even trying to go after the responsible parties, and they all got paid to go through the motions and arrive at a non-conclusion when the smoke cleared. Their collective peppering interrogation for the Legionaries' attorneys and other involved parties did seem genuine, but to what end is it useful and worth the money spent to even engage in the effort? What makes any of it amount to anything less than a complete waste of taxpayer dollars by the BTLA?
At the end of the day this whole case can be described as the pathetic, unfortunate capitulation to a secret sect of the Catholic Church connected to systemic child abuse. Even as this sect insists it relies on donations to pay for the expenses of their Center Harbor properties, it has a history of very questionable fundraising tactics. Just ask the family of the late Gabrielle Mee.
An especially devoted segment of the Legionaries of Christ is called Regnum Christi. The article linked above explains the following about that religious order:
“Typically, consecrated members of Regnum Christi take a vow of poverty and release their assets to the Legionaries of Christ. Consecrated women must donate half of their assets to the organization within fifteen years and all of their assets within twenty-five years.”
The sect is also link directly to the "Pandora Papers" money laundering investigation and is purported to be hiding millions of dollars in offshore funds. It can easily be argued that these fraudulently granted tax exemptions are just enabling this sect to perpetrate even more financial offenses down the road.
There were no winners here in terms of this doomed-from-the-start BTLA case, unless you consider being able to skip out on years of taxes to be a win for the Legionaries of Christ.
The major lesson I learned myself from this whole three-ring-circus process is sometimes you have to do it all on your own. Law enforcement and government cannot possibly address an issue as well as the court of public opinion can. There are no statutes of limitations on public exposure of corruption and fraud.
Journalism should not be pursued only to toe a particular political party's line. It should be truth-based with an ever-present vigilance against corruption and grift as its backbone.
These are the kinds of stories that Plan B Justice is here to cover. We are and will continue to be fearlessly and unflinchingly honest at every turn about every aspect and point of background we write about here. Wherever accountability is due, we'll do our best to pay it forward to our readers.
CLICK HERE to read Part 1 of the Sins of Omission Series
CLICK HERE to read Part 2 of the Sins of Omission Series
CLICK HERE to read Part 3 of the Sins of Omission Series
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