At Monday’s town council meeting, Washington College Vice President for Finance and Administration Mark Hampton addressed the town’s request to open a dialogue about the possibility of a PILOT Program relationship between the municipality and the College.
By definition, a PILOT program seeks to “compensate a local government for some or all of the tax revenue that it loses because of the nature of the ownership or use of a particular piece of real property.”
Hampton used two maps (see below) to highlight the distinction between tax-exempt and taxed properties held by both the College and the municipality and conveyed the College’s tax history for the last decade and along the way dispelled misinformation about the College’s current budget and its lack of leeway to tack on additional student fees, especially during its tuition freeze and WC President Bair’s mission to reign in student costs.
The map shows that of the 206 WC acres about half are taxed. The College is 12.44% of the town’s 1663.44 acres.
“Over the last decade, we (the College) has paid over $650,000 in property taxes and currently paying over $100,000 in property taxes,” Hampton said. “Even if we have a 200 million endowment most of it are very restricted and the parts that we can use are already built into our budget,” he said.
Hampton does see other avenues for assistance, however, in the shape of allowing further WC properties to be taxable as they are developed.
Mayor Chris Cerino, while praising the College for being the primary economic engine for the town and county, made the case for the town’s need for further financial assistance to help underwrite services like the fire department and police, services often required by the College.
“I feel like my job is to support the College in every way that we can,” Cerno said, citing past bond signings on behalf of the College. “If the College is looking for a truly meaningful collaborative partnership with the town, coming up with a creative payment plan that—may it is a $100 fee passed on the students— that would spin off $140,00o, that’s a big chunk of change for us and we could even negotiate what you want us to spend it on. we could spend it on infrastructure that directly affects the College,” he added.
The above video is Hampton’s presentation in its entirety and Mayor Cerino’s request for additional financial support for services that would otherwise be covered by property tax.
Carol Mylander says
Perhaps, Washington College should rethink it’s profit centered development plan at Stepne Manor and some property along the riverfront. I used to think of Washington College as a college only and for the past few years realize it is also a developer and land holding company. Should I as a Chestertown resident be responsible for their property taxes? Washington College asks us to embrace their affiliation with George Washington and yet do not want to be in our historic district and continue to purchase houses that will eventually be torn down greatly disturbing the historic balance in the town. Developer or College? It is a lot to ask of residents to take on their tax responsibility.
Ted Newcomen says
Mayor Cerino has to be kidding when he suggests a minimal annual fee of $100 per student for the provision of all the public services that are provided by the town to Washington College! It’s a gross insult to existing local residents & businesses who are currently subsidizing services to Washington College. For students who are paying the annual fee of $54,000 for a degree this is a derisory figure that works out at $1-92 per week – less than the average student will spend on Twinky Bars!
Admittedly the college is not open 52 weeks a year but the infrastructure actually has to be in working condition every day of the year whether the students are present or not.
Sure, the college is a big employer (if not a particularly high paying one) but so is Dixon Valve – why not give them a break too? And what about all the other shops and small businesses in town – collectively they probably employ even more people than the college and they do so for the entire 52 weeks of the year
President Sheila Bair appears to be reluctant to contribute towards a local PILOT (Payment in Lieu Taxes) scheme but had no such problem when in a previous life she was on the faculty of UMass Amherst which it so happens has had a PILOT agreement with the town of Amherst for many years.
Amherst is of course five times bigger than Chestertown and UMass is 20 times bigger than WC and is not a private university, so its fees are much lower. However, the comparisons are still highly relevant to both Chestertown and President Bair.
The latest Aggreement with Amherst will last three and a half years and is worth $3.6 million to the town. This includes a 6% lodging fee for occupied rooms in the Halls of Residence which will transfer more than $257,000 to the town in the first payment alone. The town also receives payments for fire & emergency services thru the existing PILOT scheme . In 2015 alone the university paid $381,344 for ambulance support from the town.
For further information I would draw your attention to the weblink at https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/umass-amherst-and-town-amherst-announceI
And here’s yet another excellent example of a local PILOT agreement in the town of Andover (pop 33,000) with the Phillips Academy, a private residential secondary school with about 1100 students who each pay up to $50,000 pa in fees – As far back as twelve years ago the school was contributing $463,250 in a single year into the towns coffers. See link https://andoverma.gov/publish/PilotReport.pdf
This report is very thorough & gives lots of examples of other towns & cities for you to include in any deliberations. Chestertown can certainly learn from the experience of others & avoid many of the potential pitfalls
Ted Newcomen says
In my letter there has been a transposition error to the webpage link for the PILOT scheme between the town of Amherst & UMass
Please can you repair?
It should read https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/umass-amherst-and-town-amherst-announce
Stewart Bruce says
Our GIS Program at Washington College rents space in the Chestertown Business Park from KRM and we pay property tax as part of our lease agreement. We also employ ten professional staff (many of whom are residents of the town of Chestertown) and over one hundred student interns who spend their earned income on goods at local businesses in Chestertown.
We also do a lot of work with local community organizations for free or at little cost. And our program is just one of many at Washington College that contribute back to our local community.
Joe Lill says
Maybe a different approach would be for the College to give back to the Town by raising the floor of their minimum wage. This would help those that may work at the College because they can’t afford the reliable transportation needed for lengthy commutes and may very well live in town or right outside. This group of people would contribute more in taxes and have the ability to spend more locally and it could be a Win Win for everyone involved.