Nuçi's Space property tax appeal heads to court this week

Lawyers for Athens-Clarke County and a local nonprofit will make their cases in appeals court Thursday over whether Nuçi's Space - and potentially other nonprofit groups - must pay local property taxes.

In the next few months, a three-judge state Court of Appeals panel will uphold or reverse a Clarke County Superior Court decision last year that said Nuçi's Space is covered by a 2006 law exempting nonprofits with commercial components, such as a thrift store, from property taxes.

"It's our contention that the law wasn't properly applied to the facts," Athens-Clarke Attorney Bill Berryman said.

The county Board of Assessors sued Nuçi's Space, a resource center for musicians founded in 1996, seeking to force it to pay taxes on its $380,000 Oconee Street property.

In a similar case, another nonprofit, the Quality Deer Management Association, agreed June 5 to pay taxes on its 23-acre, $1.3 million headquarters in Bogart, according to court records. The hunting and conservation group supports itself partly by selling hunting gear through the mail. Quality Deer Management executives could not be reached for comment.

Nuçi's Space has no intention of settling, Executive Director Bob Sleppy said.

"The topic hasn't even been broached," Sleppy said. "We'd be willing to listen to anything, but obviously, we think we're in the right."

Nuçi's Space rents out space for private parties during down time when bands aren't practicing in its rehearsal rooms. It al

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