Alabama Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, has prefiled a bill that would exempt the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc., and each local Baptist association that is a member in good standing of the convention from paying taxes.

While religious organizations are exempt from federal taxes, Ensler said it is currently a more challenging process to exempt them from local taxes.

“In Alabama, we have, what I would say, is an outdated structure or process in which entities have to be granted tax exemption on an individual basis,” he said.

“So, in the Alabama code, there are all sorts of nonprofits that have been exempt over the years.

“Whether it’s been a bill that’s had multiple entities listed at once to grant them tax exempt status or just on an individual basis, it’s just done in that way.”

He said he was surprised when he first found out that the Baptist Convention was not exempt.

“I work closely with their leadership and a lot of their clergy, especially in Montgomery, but also in other parts of the state,” he said.

“I have colleagues in the legislature who are missionary Baptists and attend churches that are part of the convention on it for some time because of their work.”

A few years ago, church leadership reached out to Ensler to request exemption, which he said he was motivated to grant based on the work the group does.

“They just do incredible work throughout the state,” he said.

“They serve people that have food insecurity issues. They serve homeless individuals. They help people that are struggling with their utility bills or with funeral expenses. So, they just do a lot of really good and helpful work, especially for people that are struggling financially.”

“So, by granting them tax exempt status, the money that they’ll save from not paying taxes, they pour that back into the community. They pour that back into helping people.”

Ensler has filed versions of this bill in previous legislative sessions, but it has never made it onto the Senate calendar for a final vote, he said.

While he is hopeful that prefiling the bill this year will give it enough time to work its way through the legislature, Ensler said he would like to see an updated process for tax exemption in Alabama in future sessions.

“Long term, what would be helpful is instead of having to go kind of organization by organization, if we had a little bit of a more modern process where maybe all churches or religious nonprofits are exempt or if they reach a certain threshold of how much charitable and community work they do,” he said.

“So that we’re not having to go entity by entity.”