"A Taxing Tale" for Imagine Schools

From Karen Francisco at the Journal Gazette:

A taxing tale

County scrutinizes charter school property tax exemption

The news about charter schools, their owners, and the money they make goes back to December to the state Supreme Court. In reversing a decision by the Indiana Tax Court, the justices ruled that a property owner doesn’t automatically qualify for a tax exemption even if property is used for a charitable or exempt purpose.

From that one decision, some charter school books are being opened in Fort Wayne. Taxpayers can learn where some of their tax dollars are going, and a lot of them leave the state and end up at a company boasting of attractive profits from a “reliable cash flow.”

A company is summoned. Based on that Supreme Court decision and a January memorandum from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, Allen County officials summoned JERIT CS Fund LLC, the real estate investment trust listed as owner of the Wells Street campus of the Imagine schools, to defend its property tax exemption.

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