"Boston University contributes $4.6 million each year, the highest of any institution, while Harvard University - which owns twice as much land in Boston - pays $1.9 million"
And they are sitting on a $30 BILLION endowment?
Know who is picking up the cost, don't you?
"Nearly 50 percent of land in the city is tax-exempt, leaving owners of the other half picking up the city's total property tax bill, which was $1.4 billion"
Yeah, that's right, HOME-OWNING TAXPAYERS!!!!
Related: Mass. Property Taxes Rising
"Tax hunt targets exempt groups; City to study nonprofits" by Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | December 9, 2008
Mayor Thomas M. Menino is planning to tackle an issue that has long bedeviled a city rich with nonprofit universities and hospitals: how to wring more money out of revered institutions, many of them quite wealthy, that are exempt from property taxes.
Owwww!!! Right in the poop shoot!
Menino will announce the formation today of a task force in an attempt to negotiate ways of increasing their payments in lieu of taxes - which the institutions voluntarily pay to varying degrees.
Oh, can I VOLUNTARILY PAY my taxes? How's that poop shoot feeling, Boston taxpayers?
With this response to the economic crisis, Menino is taking aim at the major institutions that are the lifeblood of Boston's education and healthcare economies. It is a political thicket for the mayor, who is considering a run for reelection next year. Universities and hospitals provide tens of thousands of jobs for Boston and Massachusetts, and many of those institutions have said they also are hurting in the current downturn.
But perceived inequities created by their tax-exempt status have long rankled some critics. Combined, tax-exempt institutions give the city $32.4 million annually in payments in lieu of taxes, a drop in the bucket when compared with what the city spends on police, fire, and other services. If their properties were taxable, the institutions would be writing checks for 10 times that amount - between $350 and $400 million each year, city officials estimated yesterday.
Of course, said institutions BENEFIT from the CITY SERVICES!!!
But hey, it is just RICH FOLK avoiding TAXES YOU PAY!!! You know, the AMERICAN WAY!
"We want to ensure that each and every institution is paying their fair share," Assessor Ronald W. Rakow said. The mayor's task force will examine not only the payments but also services provided by the universities and hospitals to the city and its residents, such as scholarships, internships, jobs, and other benefits.
The mayor's push comes at a difficult time, when the nation is grappling with a severe economic crisis. Its effects have trickled down not only to state and city governments, including Boston's, but to the very institutions Menino is targeting. The endowment of Harvard University, for example, tumbled $8 billion between June and November this year.
Yeah, they are still sitting on $30 BILLION though!
The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, which represents most of the city's large institutions, is against the city squeezing anything more from its members. "We cannot afford to take on a payment in lieu of taxes right now," president Richard J. Doherty said. "Making a payment in lieu of tax would have a devastating effect."
The Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, which represents about a dozen medical centers in the city, sounded a similar alarm, saying the institutions are reeling from crippling cuts in state and federal funding....
So what do you think is happening to the average guy then? And how come it is only WAR LOOTERS who aren't hurting in this country, huh?
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Even though the payments are voluntary, the city has used its authority over zoning and permitting - both critical for institutional renovation and expansion - as leverage in the past to persuade them to agree to payments....
Listen to how the paper describes the situation. Yeah, the city (that's YOU, the PUBLIC) are "leveraging" against the poor, beleaguered , globalist richers. Almost as if we are EXTORTING something from them!! Oh, is this elite paper making me sick! So what are the corporations and Hollywood doing to us?
One of the key goals of the mayor's initiative is to standardize contributions across institutions. Currently, many pay wildly differing amounts. For example, Boston University contributes $4.6 million each year, the highest of any institution, while Harvard University - which owns twice as much land in Boston - pays $1.9 million. Northeastern University contributes only $30,600.
In the medical sector, Massachusetts General Hospital pays nearly $2 million, while Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center gives $125,000 and Boston Medical Center pays $140,000....
Is it just me, or did Beth Israel "jew" the city? :)
Nearly 50 percent of land in the city is tax-exempt, leaving owners of the other half picking up the city's total property tax bill, which was $1.4 billion in the current fiscal year. Half of the tax-exempt land is owned by city, state, or federal governments. The other half is owned by private nonprofits, including schools, hospitals, churches and other charities.
City finance officials declined to provide a detailed breakdown of the amount of land owned by each of the 44 tax-exempt institutions. Rakow said his office was still trying to determine property ownership in some cases and assess the value of the land. He said that based on his analysis so far, he roughly estimated total potential property taxes of $350 to $400 million, if it were taxed at the current commercial rate.
Aside from the mayor's initiative, three other measures designed to extract more from tax-exempt institutions are under consideration by the Boston City Council. The council held a hearing yesterday on the measures, one of which would effectively eliminate the tax exemptions. But none is likely to pass because of insufficient support, said one council insider who spoke on condition of anonymity....
Translation: the RICHERS KEEP their tax breaks as YOURS GO UP, taxpayers!
The Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded watchdog group, said yesterday that the city has one of the most aggressive payments-in-lieu-of-taxes programs in the nation and cautioned officials against pushing harder, despite the difficult funding cuts the city is facing....
Of course, you getting poked in the pooper is O.K., taxpayers!
"The city should be very cautious about how to proceed in terms of trying to generate additional revenue from the exempt property," Bureau president Samuel R. Tyler said. "You don't want to jeopardize the goose that's laid the golden egg in terms of the vitality generated by these institutions in the local economy."
Goose that's laid the golden egg? WHERE? All that goose is doing is SUCKING UP TAX DOLLARS!!!!!
