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Post by rf1 on Apr 28, 2022 9:52:49 GMT -5
Former four term Worcester Mayor Raymond V. Mariano's latest Worcester Telegram opinion piece argues that Holy Cross and other city colleges should pay taxes.
Mariano: Holy Cross and other colleges should pay local property taxes (April 22nd, 2022)
With the Polar Park bond payment schedule set to soon rapidly increase, expect to see more college tax and increased PILOT talk. The tax revenues by the park will never meet what is needed to pay off the debts. Economists such as Holy Cross Economics Professor Victor Matheson early on opined that the ballpark district's tax revenues would never be enough to pay for its construction and that was even before the stadium cost rose by several tens of millions more. The city will have to find the funds elsewhere with new revenues and cuts in services and payroll. It may not restrict its efforts to just residents. Local colleges and their students may also have to help foot the bill.
Read the local response replies. Many agree with Mariano.
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Post by ndgradbuthcfan on Apr 28, 2022 10:43:10 GMT -5
Agree 100% and I am no longer a resident of Worcester.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Apr 28, 2022 11:36:09 GMT -5
The T&G article is behind a paywall. But I am quite certain no MA city or town can levy a property tax on a college or university without the specific approval of the legislature. And that is not going to happen. Did the former mayor also propose taxing the sovereign, i.e., the Commonwealth, for the property it owns, e.g., Worcester State, UMass Memorial? He would have a stronger argument for seeking Payment in Lieu of Taxes, for services the city provides to all non-profit institutions. Other communities have agreements with their colleges and universities for such payments. _______________ www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04/16/metro/state-power-limits-bostons-vision/A former four-term mayor of Worcester should know this. If he doesn't he is either woefully ignorant for a person to have held such a position, or he is pandering. |
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Post by rgs318 on Apr 28, 2022 11:53:28 GMT -5
If I understand this correctly, the city built a stadium to bring a semi-pro team to play there...and now they want HC (which already has a football stadium and baseball stadium) to pay for some of the costs of that stadium??? They have to be kidding. "The power to tax is the power to destroy." That principle its why HC is not taxed by Worcester. Separation of church and state. Of course, Holy Cross does bring revenue to Worcester and all HC employees pay taxes but that seems to be ignored in these discussions. If HC wants to make a voluntary contribution to help with the costs of applicable municipal facilities that serve HC, that would seem fair. Allow Worcester to force HC to pay part of the costs of the town's poor decisions and that door will never be closed.
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Post by Tom on Apr 28, 2022 11:58:26 GMT -5
Here we go again. This comes up every few years. Whenever the city thinks they need money, someone brings this up. There's no way to force schools to pay money, but continually bringing up the idea does divert attention from the fact the city can't live within its means
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Post by longsuffering on Apr 28, 2022 12:05:02 GMT -5
Thanks for saying this is behind a pay wall. I wasn't looking forward to wading through it. People who want to tax non-profits are similar to NIMBYs. People who say "Not in my backyard" when anything other than a rose garden is proposed to go in next door. Except these people are PFMBYs, "Pay for my backyard."
They are looking at it as a one way street, what benefits them should be public policy. As long as they don't have to pay an extra thousand dollars per year in health insurance when every hospital in the country goes onto the tax rolls.
Why should Holy Cross pay taxes in Worcester, but Colgate not pay them in Hamilton or Bucknell in Lewisburg? Every year the college paying taxes would slip further and further behind their non tax paying peers. Pick one national policy and stick to it.
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Post by longsuffering on Apr 28, 2022 12:21:39 GMT -5
If I understand this correctly, the city built a stadium to bring a semi-pro team to play there...and now they want HC (which already has a football stadium and baseball stadium) to pay for some of the costs of that stadium??? They have to be kidding. "The power to tax is the power to destroy." That principle its why HC is not taxed by Worcester. Separation of church and state. Of course, Holy Cross does bring revenue to Worcester and all HC employees pay taxes but that seems to be ignored in these discussions. If HC wants to make a voluntary contribution to help with the costs of applicable municipal facilities that serve HC, that would seem fair. Allow Worcester to force HC to pay part of the costs of the town's poor decisions and that door will never be closed. If you are saying Worcester shouldn't be crying poor mouth after the city assured the public the Park would pay for itself, I agree. In the past year HC sold out Polar Park and brought a four team hockey tournament (and a graduation?) to the DCU Center. |
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Post by ndgradbuthcfan on Apr 28, 2022 13:06:05 GMT -5
Agree 100% and I am no longer a resident of Worcester. Embellishing my previous post. I agree with the CONCEPT that a college should pay something to the municipality in which it is located. I don't care what it is called but it should not be voluntary. Since I was born, the colleges in Worcester have greatly expanded, taking tax paying property off of the rolls. I wish I had a map showing the footprints of the Colleges when first established to what they are now, especially Clark, HC, MCPHS and WPI. It would show enormous growth, I am certain. I am not tying this to Polar Park being underfunded. |
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Apr 28, 2022 13:42:59 GMT -5
Politicians and bureaucrats have an insatiable appetite for more money.. No matter how much they have they want more.
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Post by ndgradbuthcfan on Apr 28, 2022 14:57:04 GMT -5
Agree, Democrats, Republicans and just about everyone else.
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Post by longsuffering on Apr 28, 2022 15:05:11 GMT -5
Agree 100% and I am no longer a resident of Worcester. Embellishing my previous post. I agree with the CONCEPT that a college should pay something to the municipality in which it is located. I don't care what it is called but it should not be voluntary. Since I was born, the colleges in Worcester have greatly expanded, taking tax paying property off of the rolls. I wish I had a map showing the footprints of the Colleges when first established to what they are now, especially Clark, HC, MCPHS and WPI. It would show enormous growth, I am certain. I am not tying this to Polar Park being underfunded. Lawrence, MA is an example of a large city without colleges, although they have a community college now. Several years ago the city put together a multi million dollar sweetheart package to lure Emerson College from Boston to Lawrence. In the end Emerson didn't take it and the denizens of Lawrence were left to lament that they couldn't even buy a college. |
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Apr 28, 2022 16:04:25 GMT -5
Generally speaking, the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (Pilot) fee is to cover select city services such as the fire department, streets, utilities, police. There are no children living on campuses, so there are no educational costs associated with such.
In 2021, MIT paid $90 million in property taxes and fees to the city of Cambridge. MIT is the #1 taxpayer in Cambridge. Of the $90 million,
$70 million in property tax on commercial property. (HC owns no commercial property.)
$2.2 million in Pilot payments.
$6 million in water and sewer fees. (Because of COVID, these look to be about $3 million less than what would be paid if MIT was fully open.) HC also pays water and sewer fees to Worcester.
$11 million in other fees and permits. HC also pays for these; e.g., building permits. The building permit fees for the Prior total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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In 2020, Harvard calculated the indirect economic benefit to Massachusetts of some of Harvard's spending:
$974 million was spent on supplies and services in Massachusetts
$812 million was spent on construction in Massachusetts.
Holy Cross would have a much smaller economic impact on Worcester. But that impact greatly exceeds the property taxes that would have been on the three deckers on Caro if HC had not bought and demolished them.
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Post by Wormtown Railers Fan on Apr 28, 2022 16:59:49 GMT -5
Deep breaths folks. A former mayor from 20 years ago wrote the article. A forced PILOT will never happen.
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Post by Wormtown Railers Fan on Apr 28, 2022 17:08:43 GMT -5
Although, perhaps an endowment tax like the state of Rhode Island implemented may work.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Apr 28, 2022 17:27:11 GMT -5
Although, perhaps an endowment tax like the state of Rhode Island implemented may work. “Endowment tax”—unreal. With politicians, anything that can be identified and counted can be taxed, the classic being mandatory container deposits |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2022 19:39:13 GMT -5
In some states Hospital's & College's pay agreed amount $$ in lieu of tax's. I think all business should be paying for services that a town provides.Church's should also be taxed.
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Post by longsuffering on Apr 28, 2022 21:21:12 GMT -5
In some states Hospital's & College's pay agreed amount $$ in lieu of tax's. I think all business should be paying for services that a town provides.Church's should also be taxed. The Bishop just got heartburn. To me as long as the rules are uniform nationally or at least statewide it's fair. I think in general a school like HC carries it's own weight. No taxes on the property but HC provides it's own police, snow plowing, paves it's own roads, pays for it's water and sewer, gives back to local students instead of sending it's own students to Worcester schools and donated the land for the local fire station. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2022 21:38:35 GMT -5
When those students hit the town at night" Greyhound" the local PD or EMT's are called. Does HC have their own FD?
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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on Apr 28, 2022 21:42:37 GMT -5
^
No.
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Post by Tom on Apr 29, 2022 7:49:28 GMT -5
In some states Hospital's & College's pay agreed amount $$ in lieu of tax's. I think all business should be paying for services that a town provides.Church's should also be taxed. I don't think hospitals actually pay taxes or PILOT, I think my employer and I are paying those funds via health insurance premiums |
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Post by Tom on Apr 29, 2022 8:02:52 GMT -5
When those students hit the town at night" Greyhound" the local PD or EMT's are called. Does HC have their own FD? Maybe that's why those students are paying the meals tax when they hit the town. The same way someone from Shrewsbury pays a meals tax when they come to Worcester, in case they need an emergency service. If you believe non profits should pay taxes, the best chance is to contact your representatives and ask them to redefine non profits and their tax status |
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Post by longsuffering on Apr 30, 2022 0:05:15 GMT -5
At $75,000 per, how can HC jack up their price any higher to cover a couple of million every year in Real Estate taxes? That's one of the reasons why non-profits are tax exempt. They perform a service that alleviates Government of the burden of performing that service.
In this case, every student HC or another private non-profit college educates relieves Government somewhere from subsidizing a public university or college to do it.
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