One Step Ministries and Hillsdale Justice Project, two nonprofit organizations that were denied tax exemption by the City of Hillsdale, no longer face imminent foreclosure following show cause hearings on Feb. 15, County Treasurer Stephanie Kyser said.
At the hearings, Kyser agreed to give both organizations an additional year to pay off delinquent taxes or get them cleared with the Michigan Tax Tribunal.
One Step Ministries and Hillsdale Justice Project are appealing their cases to the Michigan Tax Tribunal, arguing that they should not have been denied tax exemption because they were nonprofits in good standing with both the state and federal governments, according to attorney Daren Wiseley, who is representing both organizations.
Without these extensions, the organizations would face foreclosure hearings for the properties on Feb. 22, according to Wiseley.
Wiseley cited One Step Ministries’ status as a religious organization.
“They’re trying to fight getting foreclosed on,” Wiseley said. “They’re a Christian ministry nonprofit, which those documents point to, and 501(c)(3), so they should be tax-exempt.”
The agreements reached in this hearing removed the properties from the foreclosure process, Kyser said.
The City of Hillsdale denied One Step Ministries’ tax exemption for 2019 following an audit by the city assessor’s office. The exemption was granted again in 2021, according to City Assessor Kim Thomas.
Last year, the city Board of Review went back and approved the organization’s exemption for 2020, but did not have the authority to go back any farther, which left 2019 taxes delinquent, according to Thomas.
“This agreement is mainly to give Southern Michigan House of Hope (One Step Ministries) a one-year extension to get the 2019 delinquent taxes cleared up,” Kyser said.
Cindy Eckhardt, president and founder of One Step Ministries, attended the organization’s hearing, along with her daughter Josie Eckhardt and Tina Burr, both One Step Ministries board members.
The assessor’s office and the Board of Review both denied Hillsdale Justice project’s exemption, Wiseley said. Jon-Paul Rutan, president and founder of Hillsdale Justice Project, also attended the hearing.