Chase Congleton
Representative Jacob Burger of Oklahoma State University introduced House Bill No. OSU-505 into the House of Representatives.
The bill introduced sets to remove tax exemptions from religious buildings across the state with hopes of gaining more funding.
Religious buildings no longer exempted would be churches, synagogues, mosques and any other building that have the sole purpose for religious use or worship.
Once the bill was introduced, many members of the House began asking questions and debating the bill. A few individuals deemed the bill unconstitutional and contradictory to federal law and voiced their concerns over smaller churches.
Representative Seth Jones of Southeastern Oklahoma State University initially opposed this bill and voiced concerns regarding who would get hurt and how larger megachurches could find a loophole and remain tax-exempt.
“I love the ideological idea of the bill,” Representative Jones said. “However, I do not agree with the implementation.”
Representative Jones also said that megachurches could file as a 501(c) as a charity and, thus, avoid taxation altogether.
Burger clarifies that if churches also happen to have schools or day-cares attached to their facilities or in partnership with them, the church will remain tax-exempt because of the non-religious purpose it fulfills.
Despite his statement, Burger accepted a friendly amendment to tax-exempt churches that have made under $250,000 in profits. The author of the bill also accepted a friendly amendment to allocate all taxes gained from churches to be put into use for the Oklahoma Department of Education.
Representative Schultz expressed lukewarm to positive reception regarding the bill, believing that it has good intentions.
“It is really important to maintain the separation of church and state in the government,” Schultz said. “Our nation was made on Christianity rather it was made on freedom of religion.”
Representatives Ashlyn Giauque and Emilee Kula of OSU wrote a hostile amendment, but it failed to pass by the members of the House.
After the passage of two friendly amendments and the killing of one hostile amendment, the bill itself was tabled as of the publication of this article due to the representatives breaking off for lunch and wanting to move on to the next bill.