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Baltimore Science Fiction Society to Ask Court of Appeals for Tax Exemption

Posted on: Monday, 8 November 2004, 21:00 CST

Star Trek fans - aping the ultra-rational Mr. Spock - may not think it's logical, but the Baltimore Science Fiction Society is having trouble convincing the legal world that it fits the definition of an educational organization.

While the group will argue today before the Court of Appeals that it promotes a genre of literature as worthy of respect as Shakespeare or Dickens, there are those who disagree - including Baltimore City Circuit Judge I. H. Hammerman.

I don't think promoting science fiction is what is deemed to be the operation of an educational institution, Hammerman said, according to transcripts of the March 4 hearing at which he overturned a property tax exemption granted by the Tax Court.

Now the society, founded formally in 1974, is arguing before the state's highest court that Hammerman got it wrong, and that it should receive a tax exemption for the building in the Highlandtown neighborhood it has owned since 1991.

We are a literary society, said Dale Arnold, chairman of the society's board of directors. We focus on the literature of science fiction.

Arnold feels Hammerman appeared to be prejudiced against science fiction, showing symptoms of an outmoded social sensibility, as he put it.

The society has the moral support of Scott Edelman, editor-in- chief of Science Fiction Weekly and Sci-Fi Magazine.

Edelman explained that many science fiction writers have advanced degrees in physics and are particularly interested in discussing how scientific advances will shape the future, therefore making the genre particularly educational.

Science fiction also has spurred the imagination of scientists in the past, he claimed.

We wouldn't be in space if it wasn't for science fiction, Edelman said. Anyone who really examines it would say there's a great deal to be learned.

To illustrate the point, he noted that classic science fiction novels, like Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Frank Herbert's Dune have now found their way into classrooms.

More recently, literary critics have lavished praise on the latest novel by British writer David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, part of which is set several centuries in the future.

The society's lawyer, who happens to be Arnold's brother, Donald, will tell the court today that the group already has been recognized by the State Department of Assessments and Taxation as a qualifying educational organization.

Donald Arnold's brief lists the various educational activities the society sponsors, such as its annual convention, Balticon, where both writers and scientists discuss their work.

The society also presents a literary award each year and runs writers' workshops at the Highlandtown building.

Meanwhile, the state - while avoiding any mention of Hammerman's literary critique - maintains that the society does not host enough events at its headquarters to qualify for the tax exemption.

We have nothing against science fiction, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey G. Comen said Friday. It's not anything to do with the genre at all.

The argument is instead that education groups must offer systematic instruction to be worthy of the exemption, Comen argues in his brief.

The society's sporadic educational programs counted as next to none in his book, Comen said Friday.

A book discussion among members of a society doesn't do it, he added.

The state's brief says the Tax Court adopted its own interpretation of the education requirements, which would make it a great deal easier for other organizations to seek the same exemption, he added.

Following the Tax Court's logic, almost every use of property in a pursuit would qualify as an educational purpose, Comen wrote.

At the circuit court level, SDAT Associate Director Robert Young testified on that very subject.

He told the court he didn't believe the society's building was primarily used for an educational purpose, and was in fact used for more social club type meetings for people with a similar interest, according to the transcripts.

In response, Donald Arnold wrote in his brief that state law allows literary groups to be eligible for the exemption.

He also denied that granting the exemption to the society would open the floodgates to other groups with more questionable educational goals.

To be eligible for an exemption, the organization would still need to qualify as an educational organization, the lawyer wrote.

Although he will leave the legal arguments to his brother, Dale Arnold thinks the Court of Appeals has a very simple decision to make.

You never know what people are going to do, he said. But if [the judges] review the evidence from the Tax Court, I believe they will come to the same conclusion.

Source: The Daily Record (Baltimore)

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