Kansas Churches Sue City Over "Driveway Fee;" Say It Is a Tax to Punish Churches on Attendance

The Christian Post website reports today (December 22, 2010) that two Kansas religious institutions have sued a city for imposing a tax-like fee that levies charges on the number of trips attendees make to their places of worship.

First Baptist Church of Mission and the Archdiocese of Kansas City are both suing Mission, Kansas to repeal the property tax attorneys say is disguised as a "driveway fee" to evade having to grant exemptions.

The "driveway fee" would cost the institutions over $1,000 in the coming year. The Mission City Council asserts that the fee is not a tax, but others disagree.

"No one should be taxing church attendance, but that's what this tax does: It punishes churches based on their attendance," said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Erick Stanley, who is representing both religious institutions in the lawsuit.