December 13, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute
A religious charity that runs a Christian theme park in Orlando, Fla., is suing Orange County to receive a property-tax exemption after county officials denied the exemption.
The charity, Zion’s Hope, in February opened the Holy Land Experience, which features a depiction of Jesus’s tomb and aims to recreate Jerusalem and other areas as they were in biblical times.
The nonprofit organization received an exemption for parts of the property where its administrative and educational facilities are located, but was assessed property taxes of $28,013 for the remainder.
Orange County officials said that next year the property-tax bill may rise to more than $300,000, to take into account improvements to the property.
Bill Donegan, Orange County’s property appraiser, said that the park, which charges a $17 admission fee and sells food and gift-shop items, is a business, not a charity.
Jay Sekulow, the lawyer representing Zion’s Hope, said that county officials are overstepping their authority by imposing the tax. The activities on the property meet the requirements for tax-exempt organizations, he said, because they further the group’s mission of educating the public about Christianity. Mr. Sekulow is a leading religious-rights activist and chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal group that supports religious rights.
