There’s been some but unfortunately, not enough (IMHO) discussion about collecting PILOT payments from our non-profits. Clearly – not all non-profits have land holdings assessed at more than $1 million but there certainly are some who could “afford” to “contribute” more to our City coffers since the City does provide services to them. The Boston City Council will hold a public hearing on the PILOT program, and the importance of increasing enforcement, accountability, and transparency #ExpandThePie #BosPoli
According to this FB post: “The PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) Program asks 49 large tax exempt non-profits in the City of Boston to voluntarily pay 25% of their potential property taxes. This money is meant to cover city services they inevitably use, like road maintenance, water distribution, and emergency services.
However, in five years $60.8 MILLION of the requested PILOT contributions have been left unpaid, primarily by four universities: Northeastern, Boston College, Harvard, and Boston University. That’s money could go to fund education, housing, job creation, and so many other programs that would help Boston residents improve their quality of life. And that money is not too much to ask from our wealthy neighbors.”
Are our City leaders ready and willing to start asking our non-profits to make more substantial PILOT contributions?
Liberal colleges not paying their “fair share”?
They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. “Do as I say, not as I do”.
City of Boston: “we expect other school districts to help fix our terrible schools, and by the way, we’re not going to pay you enough for your generosity”
Thanks to Amy for posting this. Most of our elected “leaders” in Newton don’t have the courage to take on these large institutional freeloaders. This issue in particular was one of many reasons I voted for Amy to be Mayor. She has guts, common sense, and she’s never shied away from a righteous fight.
Frankly, I don’t see any way that Mayor Fuller takes on this issue. She doesn’t have the stomach for it. There is however a partial solution available if Fuller were willing to try…
While institutions like BC are in fact property tax exempt, they enjoy no such protection from bills for services actually rendered to them. The City of Newton should be billing BC [and all the other property tax exempt institutions] on an ad hoc basis for every single service rendered. That would at least be a start toward ending the free ride for institutional tax dodgers.