Dive Brief:
- Under a voluntary payment in lieu of taxes program in Boston, 15 out of 19 colleges aren’t paying the amounts they agreed to in 2011 to offset the city’s cost for police, firefighting, snow removal, and other services, according to city officials.
- The program calls for the higher education institutions to pay 25% of what their property tax bill would be if they weren’t exempt, and they can get that bill cut in half by showing they provide services that benefit Boston residents that are worth at least that amount, the Boston Globe reports.
- Most hospitals in Boston, which are under the same voluntary agreement, are paying their recommended amounts.
Dive Insight:
The Boston Globe article includes what amounts to a list of shame for the colleges and universities in Boston, showing what each school would pay with and without the services contribution deduction and how much they actually paid in the fiscal year ended in June. Northeastern University, which would have paid $2.5 million with the full deduction, paid nothing. Northeastern says it contributes more than $30 million per year to the community in programs, benefits, and other direct payments to the city. Richard Doherty, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, says that the payments were always meant to be voluntary, and that some colleges would have to cut their budgets if they paid more. He also told the Boston Globe that the schools already provide public benefits.
