Church Ordered to Stop Giving Away Free Water

[Hum]

A Louisiana church was ordered to stop giving away free water along Mardi Gras parade routes because they did not have the proper permits.

?We were given a cease and desist order,? said Matt Tipton, pastor of Hope Church in Metairie, LA. ?We had no idea we were breaking the law.?

Tipton said volunteers from his church were handing out free coffee and free bottles of water at two locations along a Mardi Gras parade route when they were stopped by Jefferson Parish officials. The church volunteers were cited for failing to secure an occupational license and for failure to register for a sales tax.

?It kind of threw me for a loop because they weren?t in uniform,? he said. ?But once they pulled the ticket out, I was conviniced.?

?We apologized,? Tipton said. ?We didn?t know the rules.?

The church had purchased about five thousand bottles of water labeled with the church?s name and website address. They gave the remaining bottles to a local drug rehab center.

A spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff?s Office confirmed to Fox News that the church had violated the law.

The spokesman said the church was initially given a verbal warning ? and then a written warning. He said it was not a citation ? even though the warning clearly stated it was a ?vendor warning citation.?

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[Vice]

Weird but I suppose if you're going to get tax exempt status and then spend money to buy 5,000 bottles of water which you then give away you're probably making a detrimental hit on the local economy in quite a few ways.

But I still think giving away free water should be allowed.

[Hum]

No water -- what's next ? No free air ?

[MidnightDevil]

Idiots :\

[Edrick Smith]

I'm pretty sure no one said they couldn't give it away, they said they hadn't gone through any of the proper procedures to do so. It's basically to stop anyone especially some sick people from just giving away a bunch of free stuff that is tainted.

[Southern Patriot]

In New Orleans, any kind of street vendor or performer (even ones giving things away) has to have a permit. They didn't and were called on it. I don't see the problem here.

edit: well, technically this was in Metairie, but since they are right next to each other I'm guessing that the rules are the same. And "ignorance of the law is no excuse". By giving away drinks, they were, in the eyes of the law, a food vendor, even though they weren't charging for it.