350 Billion Reasons Change Is Coming

What if one day the economic crisis was bad enough, severe enough that state budgets were on the edge of collapse? Faced with this crisis, looking around for alternative revenue streams to close the gaps the governors, the legislators landed on the church. Sounds outrageous?

STATE BUDGET TROUBLES WORSEN by the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities. “At least 46 states faced or are facing shortfalls in their budgets for this and/or next year, and severe fiscal problems are highly likely to continue into the following year as well. Combined budget gaps for the remainder of this fiscal year and state fiscal years 2010 and 2011 are estimated to total more than $350 billion.” http://www.cbpp.org/9-8-08sfp.htm

$350 Billion. Awash in red ink, the states are going to look for answers everywhere. Why not the church? How many people actually go to church? Realistic estimates are around 18%, what if it was closer to 15%. How many people would cry out in outrage if they just took away our tax-exempt status? Less that 20% of the population actually goes to church. That one act would make the church pay property taxes, income taxes and eliminate the deduction taken for contributions. Hey in these tough times shouldn't everyone pull their weight? In Illinois that one change would raise 1 billion dollars per year, and that is low balling the figures. What do you think Illinois would do for 1 billion dollars? What about California, or New York? Just 15% of voters go to church. Not that many. Getting smaller every day.

All I am asking is this, shouldn’t we at least be thinking about this? At some point shouldn’t we at least admit that the possibility of this is greater than nothing? To say nothing about the question of whether or not it would be a good thing in the long term? This is a change that might be coming quicker than we have ever dreamed. 350 billion reasons are staring us in the face.