Court of Appeals affirms denial of tax exemption to Madison Cathedral site

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals today affirmed the earlier decision of the Circuit Court in Dane County which upheld the denial of a religious exemption from real estate taxes for the site of St. Raphael Cathedral. (see Matt's October 4, 2016 post.)

In today's opinion, the appellate court agreed with the court below that the applicable statute, Section 70.11(4)(a), had a requirement for exemption that the land be "necessary for location and convenience of buildings" and this did not apply because the property had no buildings.

That lack of buildings resulted from the Cathedral's destruction by an arson fire in 2005 and the clearing of the site in 2012. (See this report on the original court decision in The Isthmus.) I notice that the statute has since been amended to add a subsection 2, apparently to restore the exemption for the St. Raphael property and in any future similar situations.