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Yale 101
Town and Gown
ONHSA
CCNE
Fair Share Information
Fair Share Coalition
Homebuyer Program |
A Fair Share Contribution
Yale University is New Haven's most prominent public citizen. Yale and New Haven's existences are interdependent such that the futures of the two cannot be separated. Both our University and our city have an interest in an institutional, long-standing partnership that works for the well-being of both. Yale and Yale students perform countless acts that benefit our city. But while these acts – including, for instance, Yale's Homebuyer Program – are integrally important to a successful town-gown partnership, they do not represent enough of an institutional commitment to a city that also benefits Yale.
Like all non-profit institutions, Yale is tax-exempt. But unlike all non-profit institutions, Yale is an $11-billion corporation (as non-profits go, only Harvard and the Catholic Church are bigger) that employs almost a quarter of New Haven's workforce. The bottom line is, Yale's tax exemption costs New Haven millions of dollars every year, and it is Connecticut taxpayers who are struggling to make up the difference. The state reimburses New Haven every year for tax losses on the 94% of Yale's $1.1-billion property that is not taxable, through the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program. But the PILOT program is severely underfunded, particularly in times of fiscal crisis, and shifts the burden of reimbursement onto Connecticut taxpayers. The result is that only about two-thirds of New Haven's tax loss to Yale is reimbursed each year. In 2002, New Haven lost $12. 8 million due to the gap between tax revenue lost to New Haven and PILOT funding.
In fact, Yale is not only tax-exempt but also "super-tax-exempt": a law dating from the transfer of power to the Whig Party in 1836 grants Yale and four other private colleges in Connecticut tax exemption not only for non-profit-making properties (as for all non-profit institutions), but also for profit-making properties in excess of $6,000. So, unlike other non-profit institutions, Yale pays no taxes on profit-making doctors' offices and biotechnology facilities, not just educational buildings. In July, 2003, the Board of Aldermen voted to establish a commission to investigate how much money is lost to New Haven annually due to the super-exemption. Results are expected soon.
In 1990, students, community members, and elected officials led a campaign for Yale to make a contractual yearly payment to New Haven. Then-alderman Michael Morand asserted that "it is the time when no longer can a multi-million luxury golf course [one of Yale's tax-exempt properties at the time, a portion of which was added to tax roles as a result of this campaign] be subsidized by the citizens of this state." As a result of continued pressure, in a landmark step forward, the University agreed to pay a percentage of the city's fire budget, totalling around $2.2 million annually, for 20 years.
However, while both Yale and its tax burden have grown significantly since 1990, Yale's contribution to the city has not increased. At the same time, New Haven is in a state of fiscal crisis. The city ran a deficit of $3.1 million in the 2002-03 fiscal year, and as a result, a tax increase of 3.7% is projected for this year. PILOT funding is not expected to increase.
New Haven public schools, as well, are in a state of crisis. 10 of Connecticut's 28 "priority schools" are in New Haven. Class sizes, which depend on the teacher-hiring budget and directly impact student success, are higher than both the Connecticut average and the Connecticut urban average. In direct contrast to the best-in-the-world education at Yale, education at elementary schools a few blocks up the road from Yale's campus is languishing.
Community members, students, Yale workers, religious leaders, the Connecticut Center for a New Economy (CCNE), and elected officials have come together, asking Yale, as an institution committed to the education of all of New Haven's students, and as New Haven's most prominent public citizen, to make a "fair share" yearly tax contribution to the city. We are asking our University to take what amounts to 0.1% of an endowment that makes, based on a 20-year average, $5 million per day, and close the $12.8-million gap between New Haven's lost revenue and PILOT reimbursement. We believe that a fair share contribution is the necessary next step in establishing a truly beneficial, equal partnership between Yale and New Haven.
For more information about what the UOC and other undergraduates are doing and how you can be involved in the fair share campaign, see the New Haven Student Fair Share Coalition.
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Additional Fair Share Documents Reports, leaflets, correspondence, etc.
Schools, Taxes, and Jobs – CCNE's report about fair share and public schools.
Community in Crisis, Vol. 2: In Our Classrooms, On Our Streets – The UOC's 20-page booklet about fair share and graduate-employee issues.
A Fair Share Contribution for New Haven – Fair share fact sheet, including current budget information for New Haven and discussion of Harvard's substantial tax contributions.
A Fair Share for Our University and Our City – Fair Share Coalition leaflet.
UOC's Letter to Levin – Letter to Levin from the UOC asking for a fair share contribution; includes background information.
Fair Share Coalition's Letters to Levin – Letters from 12 groups in the Fair Share Coalition.
Press and published student editorials.
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