Struggling Cities Eye Taxes, Fees for Churches

That headline to this article caught my eye. What!? Tax churches! Tax money that was already taxed before the donors gave it? Charge fees per member? That'll never happen in America...Right?

From the article:

"As local governments desperately seek ways to cover budget deficits, the debate about taxing nonprofits and churches will only heat up"

“With federal, state, and local budgetary shortfalls in abundance, we should expect to see increasing pressure on churches and other charities to help bridge the funding gap,” Busby says. “For example, a proposal was recently made and defeated in New Jersey to tax charities $100 per employee per year. Encroachment on property tax exemptions will likely be an area where government will become the most aggressive.”

This doesn't surprise me. Common sense tells me that we can't possibly cover the federal, state, and local obligations that our governments have indebted us to (Can you say hundreds of trillions?). My guess is that, unless something drastically changes in our governments' spending habits, Struggling Cities, States, and United States will be eying taxes and fees on just about everything and everyone in the very near future.

Is your church ready to "help bridge the (government) funding gap"?