By Cameron McWhirter | The Wall Street Journal
Virginia Gabert, a part-time administrative assistant for the tiny town of Hawley, Mass., recalls being taken aback five years ago when she received a letter from a nonprofit declining to pay its annual tax bill of $172.87.
“We were very surprised from the beginning,” said Ms. Gabert, noting that the nonprofit had paid taxes on the 120 forested acres for a decade. “It’s like they said, ‘Hey, let’s pick on a small town.’ ”
The nonprofit, the New England Forestry Foundation, believes it is the one being picked on. It decided to seek full tax exemption on the Hawley property as a test case on the issue after it started receiving small tax bills from other towns for the first time, according to Executive Director Robert Perschel.
