ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997 TAG: 9704070010
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS THE ROANOKE TIMES
The lodge near Catawba argues that paying an admissions tax would mean admitting it is a public organization, and thus leave it vulnerable to other taxes.
It's not easy to make a Moose do anything he doesn't want to do.
For six years, Roanoke County has been sending monthly tax forms to the Moose Lodge near Catawba asking members to calculate a 5 percent admissions tax on tickets sold for their weekend dances and attach a check for that amount.
Every month, Moose leaders fill out the forms with a neat column of zeros and mail them back.
"I wish they'd take us to court and get the thing over with," said Ed Mullikin, governor of Roanoke Lodge No.284, Loyal Order of Moose. "It just sits there, and it's kind of a thorn in our side."
Mullikin is about to get his wish.
Roanoke County filed a lawsuit against the lodge more than a year ago, but hasn't pursued the case until now. County Attorney Paul Mahoney has been preoccupied with other issues - including negotiations on expansion of the Kroger Co.'s warehouse, threats of an annexation by the town of Vinton and a federal lawsuit filed against the county by U.S. Cellular.
Efforts to hire an outside attorney to take the case for a percentage of the court award didn't attract any bites.
Now, the county has hired an attorney based on an hourly fee of $125. Mahoney concedes he may end up paying more in legal fees than he collects in back taxes.
This is not, after all, a high-stakes lawsuit. The disputed taxes total just $12,341. Both sides agree there's more at stake than just money.
The admissions tax, which generated $60,757 last year, is the smallest moneymaker in the county's arsenal of taxes. Real estate taxes, in comparison, totaled $39.75 million for the 1995-96 budget year.
County officials say the admissions tax was adopted in 1991 to diversify the tax base, allowing the county to increase revenue without raising the real estate tax rate.
But they also expected the tax to generate more money than it has.
"They thought this Explore Park was going to be like Disney World," said Commissioner of Revenue Wayne Compton. "They thought we were going to have people driving off the Parkway as hard as they could go."
But plans for Explore Park were scaled back, and most of the county's admissions taxes come from movie theaters. Compton said the tax could have been bolstered by applying it to bingo games. Only a handful of cities in Eastern Virginia were taxing bingo when the General Assembly this year passed a law prohibiting other local governments from doing the same.
The Roanoke Moose Lodge has a thriving bingo business, but the county's lawsuit can't touch it.
Vinton Supervisor Harry Nickens has single-handedly kept the lawsuit alive over the past year, raising the issue each time other cases pushed it to the back burner. Nickens said it's not the dollar value of the taxes that causes him to keep returning to the case.
"It's a question of fairness in taxation," he said.
There are two Moose lodges in Roanoke County. The other one, which happens to be in Nickens' district, pays the tax.
Bob Testerman, administrator for Vinton Lodge No.1121, declined to discuss the lawsuit involving his Moose brethren on the other side of the county.
"We always try to keep Moose business within the lodge," he said.
Mullikin, who joined the Catawba lodge after retiring from General Electric so he could "get out of the house," doesn't have that luxury anymore.
"Vinton is a small lodge, and I think they're intimidated," he said.
Mullikin said the lodge will argue it is a private, nonprofit organization.
"We just simply maintain we're not public," he said.
Paying any sort of tax would be tantamount to admitting that the lodge is a public organization, Mullikin said, leaving it vulnerable to other taxes.
That's a serious concern to its members. The Roanoke lodge, built in 1976, is an enormous building with a bingo hall, restaurant and lounge area. It is surrounded by a swimming pool, picnic pavilion and playground. The assessed value of the entire spread is nearly $1 million.
Although the lodge pays no real estate taxes, it donated $50,000 last year to the county police department, Mason Cove Elementary School and recreation leagues.
"They're getting a lot of money out of us," Mullikin said. "It's not like we're sitting here siphoning off money from the county without giving something back. We're not freeloaders."
Moose members have another worry about being pegged a public organization.
After a recent Colorado case in which a woman successfully sued to become a full-fledged member of an Elks Lodge, the Moose International headquarters in Mooseheart, Ill., sent letters to its individual lodges warning them to be particularly cautious in creating the perception that they are public.
That doesn't mean women are banned from the Moose Lodge. There are 1,000 members in the women's auxiliary unit who have free access to the Lodge along with the 1,766 male Moose members.
Other women are allowed on the premises for dances and special events only as "dates" of male members. (The term "guest" is reserved for men who are visiting as prospects.)
Mahoney is unimpressed by the argument that the county's admissions tax will shatter the carefully crafted order of Moose gender relations.
"Other lodges are paying this, and the sky hasn't fallen on them," he said.
A former Elk himself, Mahoney said there's a difference between an annual membership fee, which covers regular swimming pool access and other recreational amenities, and separate admissions charges for special events.
Cities and counties in Virginia don't all agree on whether the latter is taxable. Chesapeake, Fredericksburg, Hampton and Winchester exempt fraternal organizations, but Lynchburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke city all charge the tax for Moose and Elks events. Virginia Beach taxes only nonmembers who buy tickets, and Portsmouth exempts events where ticket fees are donated to a charity.
"It's a close call," Mahoney said. "I'm not about to suggest this is totally a slam dunk."
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CARY BEST THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. Leslie Baldwin (left)by CNBand Libby Byrd dance at the Roanoke Moose Lodge Saturday night. 2.
Roanoke Moose Lodge members Joe Bryant (right) and Rhonda McNeil
dance to live country music inside the lodge Saturday. color.