LA MARQUE — As a young man, megachurch pastor Walter Hallam liked to say he wanted to become a “Christian millionaire and a good deacon — in that order.”
Hallam won’t divulge whether he is a millionaire today, but — freed, like many of his fellow ministers of the gospel, from the worldly burden of property taxes — he has the trappings of one.
Hallam has for years lived in a tax-exempt 6,600-square-foot home, owned by his Abundant Life Christian Center and currently valued at $1.3 million. His for-profit companies use a ministry building and clergy homes for their business addresses. The companies haven’t been paying taxes on equipment and other items used to generate business income in Galveston County. And a radio station Hallam founded, which is part of Abundant Life and thus 100 percent exempt from property taxes, repeatedly promotes at least two of the family’s for-profit ventures over its airwaves or social media pages.
After the Houston Chronicle began making inquiries about real estate and business property connected to the Hallam family and Abundant Life, the Galveston County Appraisal District said it has moved to put some of it onto the tax rolls for the first time. That potentially will bring in thousands of dollars in revenue that can be used for schools, firefighting, police and more.
“We’re going to follow the code and do what we’re supposed to do,” Galveston chief appraiser Tommy Watson told the Chronicle in March. “We’re taking action on them right now.” Watson subsequently sent letters notifying the Hallam’s church and companies that certain property would be added to the rolls.
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Unfair Burden
This story is part of Unfair Burden, the Houston Chronicle’s investigative series on property taxes in Texas. You can find previous installments in the series here.
Amid the newly taxable property: almost 2 acres of land around Hallam’s residence that never should have been exempt in the first place. That’s because a nearly century-old state law restricts tax-exempt clergy residences, or parsonages, to 1 acre in size. The one Hallam and his wife Cindy call home is almost 3 acres in size, Galveston appraisal records show.
Hallam emailed the Chronicle a response to a series of questions sent to him. It did not answer all the questions and raised a few new ones. But Hallam said he and his church fully comply with all state and federal tax laws and accused the Chronicle of singling out him and Abundant Life in a biased attempt to “harass private citizens.”
“We obey the laws, so if you have a problem with the laws you should be reporting on the laws, not on innocent citizens like us who pay our taxes like everyone else, and use legal benefits that we qualify for, like everyone else,” Hallam wrote.
It is not uncommon to find tax-exempt parsonages in Texas that violate the 1-acre limit. A Chronicle investigation last year revealed that in the state’s largest counties, more than two dozen parsonages exceeded the maximum size, in some cases for decades, prompting officials all over Texas to return taxable property to the rolls.
The Chronicle discovered Hallam’s oversized parsonage after publishing the results of its investigation last year. It is one of three tax-exempt clergy residences owned by his church. Records show Hallam’s daughters and their husbands live in the other two, both in nearby League City and less than an acre in size. One sits on a golf course, and the other boasts 4,500 square feet of living space with — as a glossy magazine story recently described it — an “ultimate family kitchen” and “huge, 14-foot island.”
Hallam called the magazine story a subjective “puff piece” but didn’t dispute the description.
“You might want to mention that having a nice kitchen is not a crime in Texas, at least not yet,” he wrote.
But it’s not the size, grandeur or number of parsonages that make the Hallams and Abundant Life Christian Center stand out. As of early last year wealthy televangelist Kenneth Copeland lives in a $7 million parsonage with 18,000 square feet on Eagle Mountain Lake, and a single church in Dallas had 11 tax-exempt clergy residences worth up to $20 million.
The new twist with Abundant Life Christian Center and the Hallam family is their apparent use of tax-exempt church property and resources to promote for-profit ventures, including an event venue and a video production company, without paying local property taxes on the assets. Until the Chronicle began making inquiries, the for-profit businesses did not report or pay property taxes on business property as required, according to the chief appraiser.
Hallam said the event venue and video production company reported “all assets purchased during 2021” to tax authorities as required, but he declined to provide any evidence of that as of Thursday.
“We continue to enjoy good relations with Galveston County Chief Appraiser Tommy Watson, and we have always complied with any decisions that he has made over the years,” Hallam said.
This tax-exempt parsonage is owned by Abundant Life Christian Center in Texas City. The ministry at Abundant Life Christian Center says it’s the “largest church in Galveston County” with an estimated 3,000 members.
Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
‘A prophetic word’
Walter Hallam grew up in a pastor’s family and always felt, he once told an interviewer, that he was called to the ministry since the day he was born. After graduating from Jasper High School in deep East Texas, Hallam writes in his online bio that he went to college on a baseball scholarship, served in the Air Force and married his childhood sweetheart, Cindy.
In 1984, Hallam “received a prophetic word from an anointed man of God” that he was to “begin ministering the good news of Jesus Christ” in Texas City, according to the bio. He soon incorporated Abundant Life Christian Center, and 15 years later its congregation in La Marque had grown to what the ministry still says is the “largest church in Galveston County” with an estimated 3,000 members.
Hallam is perhaps best known for staging game-show-like techniques to draw worshipers to his church. After raffling off a motorcycle, car and furniture to churchgoers, Hallam went on ABC’s Good Morning America in 2005 to explain why he’d kicked it up a notch by giving away a house in a random drawing at an upcoming New Year’s Eve service.
“Are you bribing for God?” anchor Diane Sawyer asked him.
“Well,” Hallam responded, “if I thought that would work, I’d do it, believe me.”
By his own telling Hallam excelled as an entrepreneur even before entering the ministry full time, having “started and run several successful businesses” by then. Since forming Abundant Life, Hallam has often found himself at the intersection of his for-profit and non-profit endeavors.
Not all of his ventures have been successful. For example, the planned acquisition of a La Marque hotel, hatched with the help of Abundant Life congregant and convicted con man Harris Dempsey “Butch” Ballow, never materialized. But it did spill into the pages of a 2001 lawsuit filed after Ballow transferred over $400,000 to Abundant Life a little more than 20 years ago.
In a deposition in the lawsuit, filed by investors Ballow allegedly defrauded, Hallam invoked a “pastor privilege” when asked about conversations with or about Ballow. But he said he knew nothing about the fraudulent origins of the money and shouldn’t be held liable. The church agreed to settle for terms that aren’t disclosed in court records; Hallam said Abundant Life was not found to have committed “any wrongdoing whatsoever.” Ballow, 79, was convicted of stock fraud in 2018 and is currently serving a 40-year sentence in federal prison.
Hallam’s deposition in the 2001 case provides a peek into his jet-setting lifestyle, with mentions of frequent trips “to minister in Hawaii,” an $8,500 diamond necklace he gave his wife for their anniversary and an $800,000 church-owned airplane, which was later sold.
Hallam said the church was fooled by Ballow, too, and did nothing wrong. He also objected to the notion that he’s a jet setter.
“I have ministered all over the USA, that’s part of my duty when churches ask me to come speak there. That’s not a ‘jet setting lifestyle.’ It’s a lot of work,” he said. As for the necklace, he said the “beautiful gift to my high school sweetheart for a significant anniversary is an expression of our love.”
Two decades later, the line between Hallam’s ministry and his family’s business dealings remains blurry.
This tax-exempt parsonage is owned by Abundant Life Christian Center in Texas City. After the Houston Chronicle began making inquiries about real estate and business property connected to pastor Walter Hallam’s family and Abundant Life, the Galveston County Appraisal District said it has moved to put some of it onto the tax rolls for the first time.
Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
A network of connections
Tune in on any given day to Abundant Life’s KHEA Radio on the FM dial or social media channels and — alongside the Christian music — you might hear station manager Gardy Garcia interviewing a boxer, a venue owner hawking wedding packages or a pastor from the church touting a “business and spiritual leadership” conference.
Videos posted on the radio station’s YouTube channel appear to show the interviews being conducted on church property, where the KHEA studio is located, and where Garcia serves on staff and plays guitar in the church band. Garcia also happens to be Walter Hallam’s son-in-law.
During the broadcast Garcia does not connect the dots between the Hallam family and the for-profit businesses that are being promoted on the radio’s airwaves and social media offerings. Peel back the corporate ownership and the individual parts seem to fit together like an integrated whole, like a network of interconnected businesses.
The family’s for-profit video production company, Clear Life Media LLC, operates as a sort of cinematic and social media arm of Abundant Life. The company often films appearances by Hallam and assorted family members while producing slickly edited videos, like one promoting the church’s beachfront offshoot in Galveston — the Seawall Church — which gives off the feel of a resort marketing commercial with thumping music and slow motion coastline drone shots.
But Clear Life, which has the same physical address as Abundant Life, also touts regular business clients all across Galveston County — ranging from the city of La Marque to Texas Pit Stop BBQ — and the company is increasingly promoting boxing and mixed martial arts through its “Clear Life Combat” branded podcasts and streaming services.
Clear Life Media planned to take it to the next level with its May 5 live-stream of a pay-per-view boxing match, “Boxing with Termite Cinco de Mayo Fite Nite,” in Pasadena. The company has been advertising broadcast sponsorships — at $5,000 a pop — on the Clear Life Media webpage and from KHEA’s Facebook page.
“The stream will start at 6:30 with a special preshow to get you ready for the action with host Gardy Garcia of Clear Life Combat/KHEA Radio,” blares the Christian radio station in a recent Facebook post. That’s just one of numerous instances in which nonprofit KHEA and for-profit Clear Life Media, where Garcia and his mother-in-law are both listed as managers, seem to meld into one co-branded entity.
“With cameras, graphics, audio and in-house production we can handle it all,” Clear Life Media brags on its website. “Through our partnership with KHEA Radio, we can help push your content to a larger audience.”
There’s a similar pattern with the family’s for-profit event venue in Dickinson. WaterGrove Event Venue hosts and cross-promotes church events and conferences, but it also touts a brisk business selling a range of wedding packages, corporate meetings and banquets.
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A tax-exempt parsonage owned by Abundant Life Christian Center in League City.
Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
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A tax-exempt parsonage owned by Abundant Life Christian Center in League City.
Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
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A tax-exempt parsonage owned by Abundant Life Christian Center, third from bottom at lower left, in League City.
Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
‘We abide by the rules’
Case in point: During a morning radio broadcast a few months ago, and later pushed out on KHEA’s YouTube channel, Garcia invites a woman to “introduce herself and then share the name of the venue that she’s here with today.”
“My name is Catherine Rudolph, and I am one of the owners at WaterGrove Event Venue in Dickinson, Texas. We are a wedding and special event venue. And I’m really excited to be here today,” she responds.
During that broadcast, neither Garcia nor Rudolph make mention of their family and business ties — that Garcia is married to Rudolph’s sister; that their parents/in-laws, Pastor Walter Hallam and his wife Cindy, co-own WaterGrove alongside Rudolph; and that while on the broadcast she is promoting the family’s for-profit event venue business with the help of the La Marque church’s tax-exempt radio ministry.
“I mean everything from hair and nails to flowers to of course, the most amazing venue you could possibly look at — WaterGrove,” Rudolph gushed to her brother-in-law as if he were any old radio announcer. “Our facility is really beautiful.”
Garcia and Rudolph did not respond to requests for comment.
Hallam responded “so what?” in reference to the co-branding and cross promotions between the nonprofit and for-profit companies. He said his church and businesses, with the help of professional accountants, respect the bright line between for-profit and nonprofit activities of his family and church as required by federal tax law and regulations.
“All the IRS appropriate ‘fences’ are enforced by our nonprofit tax advisors strictly,” he said. “We abide by the rules.” Hallam did not respond to requests from the Chronicle to see the audits and internal scorecards compiled by his accountants and advisors. He said any questioning of his business practices amounted to nothing more than “unfounded innuendo” and an ignorance of the law.
While WaterGrove boasts amenities that include a pool table, ping pong table, banquet tables and chairs for hundreds, an 80-inch TV with gaming consoles, granite meeting tables, leather chairs, sound system and a projector and screen for videos, none of those items turned up on the rolls as taxable business personal property as Watson, the Galveston chief tax appraiser, told the Chronicle in March he would have expected.
And while Clear Life Media touts its “6k professional cameras, drones, audio equipment, and lighting” that can be used in “any video production project,” like the streaming of pay-per-view boxing matches, none of that was on the tax rolls either, Watson told the Chronicle in March.
So in mid-March, Watson notified the two for-profit companies that he was adding $85,000 in taxable business personal property — up from zero — to the tax rolls for 2021.
Last week, Watson said he finally heard from Hallam’s for-profit businesses about taxable assets and equipment, but his office is sticking with the values it assessed. In addition, he told the Chronicle he plans to tack on a 10 percent penalty and is raising the amount of the taxes for the 2022 tax year. As homeowners all across Texas reel from the sticker shock of dramatically higher property valuations, Watson said when taxpayers don’t pay their fair share of the tax burden that just means average Texas homeowners have to pick up the slack.
“I know that the guy is a minister, and he has churches,” Watson said. “But this stuff that he’s doing here, he’s making money. So he should be treated just like everybody else. I mean, if I have to pay he should have to pay.”
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