Ministers lose job-tax exemption in Kentucky county

Ministers in a Kentucky county will no longer be granted an occupational tax exemption after a local atheist sued to challenge the practice.

Edwin Kagin, national legal director of American Atheists Inc., filed his suit in 2005 to challenge Boone County's exemption of ministers from the tax despite a state law prohibiting such exemptions.

Boone, which lies on the northernmost tip of the state, stopped requiring an occupational tax from ministers and other clerics in 2000.

"In my mind this could be viewed as a license fee for someone to preach the Gospel, and I disagree with that idea," said Gary Moore, Boone's judge executive.

"I am a Christian," Moore said. "I feel that the First Amendment right of our clergy to preach the Gospel should prevail."

Moore, who holds the highest public office in the county, said that he would have fought the suit had the county's legal counsel not advised against it.

Kagin, an atheist who sued the county jointly with American Atheists Inc., said the exemption was unconstitutional.

"Why do they think they ought to be exempt?" Kagin said. "Anyone who has to pay an occupational tax ought to be outraged that the county should let the ministers not pay the tax."

Kentucky passed a law in 2006 prohibiting ministerial tax exemptions.

"We chose to not enforce the state law," Moore said.

Boone County ministers and other clerics will again be held to the county's occupational tax.

"Now, this is going to be blamed on `Look what atheists are doing to those ministers,' instead of `Look what ministers are doing to everyone else,'" Kagin said.

— RNS