Why Are Tax-Exempt Properties Such A Burden On Cities?
What’s a cash-strapped city to do when a big chunk of its property value is government-owned, or nonprofit hospitals or institutions of higher learning?
They’re all off-limits to local property tax collectors.
It used to be that they could count on the state’s payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program to reimburse them for 45 percent of taxes lost on state-owned property, says Connecticut Mirror reporter Keith Phaneuf. He speaks with Jeff Cohen, Connecticut Public Radio’s news director, for our ongoing Extra Credit series on civics.
By 2010, though, that had been reduced to 28 percent, Phaneuf says. “And today, it’s down to 14 cents on the dollar.”
In Connecticut, Hartford is uniquely disadvantaged by this trend, he notes, as home to so many state office buildings.
(Original Broadcast December 24, 2018)