Guadalupe Shrine seeks property tax refund

Attorneys for the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe want more of the group’s property to be considered tax-exempt. The shrine corporation has filed a claim to recoup the $45,627.46 La Crosse received for 2010 property taxes. The Common Council denied the shrine’s claim Thursday night. The shrine has 90 days to challenge the decision in circuit court.

The shrine should have the same tax-exempt status as any other religious property, said Tom Kieffer of the law firm Hale, Skemp, Hanson, Skemp and Sleik, which is representing the shrine.

“Our position is we want to be treated like every other church in the area,” Kieffer said.

Many shrine structures already are tax-exempt, and the city last year agreed to remove administrative offices in the Pilgrim’s Center from the assessment, City Assessor Mark Schlafer said.

But Kieffer contends the center’s restaurant and gift shop should be exempt as well, since they exist as part of the site’s religious mission.

“The whole reason the restaurant is there is to serve the needs of the pilgrims,” Kieffer said.

The restaurant originally was privately run for profit but became part of shrine operations several years ago, Kieffer said.

He also pointed to the Children’s Museum of La Crosse, which he said has a gift shop but remains tax-exempt.

By law, no more than 10 acres of the 77-acre site can be tax-exempt. The shrine still would pay taxes on the remaining forest land, Kieffer said.

But the claim filed is to recover all of the taxes paid for 2010, including the nominal amount assessed for the forest land, Schlafer said.

When the city agreed in 2000 to the La Crosse Diocese’s request to annex the shrine site so it could receive water and sewer, then Bishop Raymond Burke wrote in a letter that “it is the intention of the shrine corporation to pay property taxes as the law requires.”

Kieffer said this claim does not go against that intent, since the shrine would be operating within what the law allows.

La Crosse Tribune