Assembly to hear Southeast nonprofit’s appeal on denied tax exemptions

Allison Gillum is the executive director for the nonprofit Southeast Alaska Land Trust, which focuses on environmental conservation. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/ KTOO)
Allison Gillum is the executive director for the nonprofit Southeast Alaska Land Trust, which focuses on environmental conservation. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/ KTOO)

Juneau-based nonprofit Southeast Alaska Land Trust, or SEAL Trust, was denied its city property tax exemption earlier this year.

Now, the Assembly will reconsider it.

It’s a first for the organization, which preserves more than 3,000 acres of land throughout the region.

The nonprofit has been around for about two decades with the goal to preserve and protect some properties, such as wetlands, from development.

Most of the land it owns is in Juneau.

SEAL Trust director Allison Gillum is trying to find the stack of property value estimates she received in late March.

“The notice of assessed value cards, which any landowner in town knows pretty well, you get them around March each year,” she said.

All land in a community is taxable, though the city offers a lot of different exemptions.

So when the stack of cards came in the mail, instead of a letter saying the organization qualified for the exemption, Gillum knew something wasn’t right.

“In previous years we received those cards and our total taxable amount has been zero because we’ve been exempt and this year we received cards with our full property value, which was a surprise to us,” Gillum said.

In this case, the exemption in question was for charitable purposes. Nonprofits qualify when their properties improve the “moral, mental and physical welfare of the public.”

The city’s Assessor’s Office determines a property’s value and whether it qualifies for the exemption.

SEAL Trust’s 14 parcels, or properties, in Juneau are mostly wetlands.

Juneau’s assessor Robin Potter denied the exemption earlier this summer. “Land preservation alone does not provide a charitable service” to the community, she said.

The organization also needed to prove that the land was being used for a charitable purposes, such as recreational facilities or improvements.

Gillum disagrees.

“People who live here in Juneau and Southeast Alaska, and Alaska in general — I think most people don’t need facilities to be able to recreate,” she said. “I think the natural landscape that we’re trying to protect is a wonderful backdrop to recreational activities.”

Attorney Rob Palmer represents the Assessor’s Office in the appeal.

“The reason for the denial was that SEAL Trust, according to the assessor, did not present enough information for the assessor to know that the property was actually being used for a charitable purpose,” he said.

SEAL Trust appealed the assessor’s decision, but the appeal also was denied.

“Her opinion is that SEAL Trust did not qualify for the charitable purpose exemption,” Palmer said, “but that SEAL Trust might qualify for the community purpose exemption.”

The nonprofit has previously qualified for that exemption since 2011, but after a meeting last summer, the nonprofit decided to pursue a different one this year.

During a Board of Equalization meeting in July 2015, the assessor told the organization that the nonprofit never qualified for community purposes exemption either, because land wasn’t being transferred to the city.

“CBJ did not adopt an exemption policy, and up until to date, all those parcels had been getting an exemption once the SEAL Trust took them over, and that was an error because we don’t have a law for that,” Potter said. “So they are taxable, and they’ve been getting a full exemption ride for several years now.”

Palmer said he knows of the recording but he couldn’t comment on what was said.

The Trust’s annual operating budget is about $300,000.

A lot of the funding is restricted by grants and a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gillum said.

Losing the exemption means the land valued at $400,000 will result in about $4,000 in property taxes.

At Monday’s assembly meeting, members voted to hear the appeal.

Their final decision is expected to take about half a year.

The trust hasn’t paid any taxes yet, Gillum said, the appeals have cost the organization time and money.

“As a small nonprofit this kind of issue can take a toll,” she said, “so we’re trying to address this issue without it taking over too much.”

The nonprofit did apply for the same tax exemption for land it owns in Sitka, which was approved.

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