Holy Cross fights taxes

SOUTH BEND -- A Roman Catholic religious order plans a $30 million expansion of its three-year-old housing development aimed at senior citizens even as it fights a tax bill on the property.\nThe brothers of Holy Cross developed the complex of homes, duplexes and apartments on its land near the University of Notre Dame, planning to use the money to support its retired members and the order's overall mission.\nThe order had anticipated that Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame would be exempt from property taxes because of its religious affiliation, but St. Joseph County officials sent a tax bill last year seeking $52,000.\nThat bill arrived after the county's Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals denied the order's request for a tax exemption, saying the development was "income-producing."\nCounty officials questioned whether the Holy Cross order's development truly fell under the "charitable or educational" category it checked on a tax-exemption application.\nThe issue is now pending before the Indiana Board of Tax Review, but no hearing date has been set.\n"There's no way this can survive unless it's income-producing, to some degree," Brother Thomas Shaughnessy, who is president of the Holy Cross Village board, told the South Bend Tribune for a story Monday.\n"It's a question of what happens to the income," he said. "Ours goes to support our mission. ... It's not being paid in a dividend. Everything stays within the religious community."\nTerrance Wozniak, a deputy county attorney, said state law was not clear on whether the Holy Cross project could be tax exempt because it was not exclusively for senior citizens and because it included freestanding homes.\n"It's a case they think the county will want to take all the way to the (Indiana) Supreme Court to get a determination on it," Wozniak said.\nThe brothers require large payments up front to live at the development -- sometimes $200,000 or more, depending on the size of the dwelling -- and they deduct 4 percent of the balance each year a resident lives there. When a resident dies or moves out, the remaining balance is refunded.\nThe order's planned expansion will include a 21-unit assisted living apartment complex, a 12-unit wing for Alzheimer's patients and a 93-unit continuing care retirement community.\nShaughnessy said Holy Cross Village's finances would improve once the expansion was completed in the next few years by spreading expenses among a larger number of people.\n"We will make money off this. I'm not going to deny that," he said. "It's not a gold mine. It's a decent return on our investment"