Council questions University giving

In advance of critical negotiations, Borough officials have been raising questions about the University's annual contribution to the Borough, signaling that they will push the University to give more money.

"I don't think that we're getting enough from them," newly appointed Borough mayor Mildred Trotman said in an interview.

As a tax-exempt institution, the University paid about $3 million in property taxes and $1 million in sewer taxes in 2004, of which the Borough received about $763,000, according to a summary provided by Pam Hersh, the University's director of community and state affairs. In addition, the summary said, the University made a voluntary contribution of about $800,000 to the Borough.

Members of the Borough Council have said those amounts are insufficient.

In light of the $1.8 million increase in the municipal budget reviewed by the council last week, Trotman said, "additional revenues will be requested [from the University]."

"They certainly will help defray" the spending hike, Trotman said of the University.

University officials, however, have defended the current level of financial support.

"Given that we had just made a major increase in our contribution, I was very surprised that the issue of increased contributions was raised so quickly," President Tilghman said in an interview last week.

Hersh added that the Council has expressed dissatisfaction without first talking to the University, calling the approach "political posturing."

"No one has sat down with us to make the case in recent times. Not a single person on council has approached us with a serious effort to talk about their needs," Hersh said.

Trotman, who replaced late mayor Joseph O'Neill last month, said, "I haven't contacted the University because I haven't sat down with the Council and decided how we want to handle this."

Contributions

The size of the University's contribution is negotiated yearly by the 10-year-old Town and Gown Committee (TAG), which is composed by University and Borough officials.

Council members said they have discussed a number of ways to increase contributions from the University.

One possibility is the creation of a Special Improvement District (SID), which would be legally empowered "to collect funds to [make improvements] in that district," Trotman said. The Council has the legal right to create a SID at any time, and the University's tax-exempt status does not shield it from funding requests levied by the SID.

Some council members want to expand the TAG committee to potentially include local alumni, students, University faculty and the Board of Trustees. "I am a strong proponent of revitalizing the TAG team and having it be more active," Trotman said.

History of giving

Since 1995, the first year of TAG's existence, the University has increased cash payments from "just over $100,000 ... to $400,000 in 2006," according to the summary provided by the University. The upcoming expiration of the ten-year contract has spurred debate about future payments from the University, Hersh said.

The University also makes a contribution on behalf of McCarter and Berlind theaters, which have been removed from tax rolls, and pays affordable housing fees every year, Hersh said.

Hersh also cited the University's longstanding policy of keeping on the tax rolls any development that could potentially add students to the public school system as an additional source of income for the Borough, one that the University is not legally required to provide.

The University has always been a dependable partner to help the Borough with its finances, she said, citing an infrastructure contribution the University made last year.

"Mayor O'Neill came to us with the municipal budget in trouble ... and we wrote a check for a quarter-million dollars without fanfare, without arguing, without contention. Very few people knew that it even happened," Hersh said.

Comparison

Newly elected Borough councilmember Barbara Trelstad recently said that she believes the first step in assessing the situation is to investigate how the University compares to other universities in terms of municipal financial commitments.

"Everyone does it a little differently," Hersh said, noting that such comparisons would be misleading because every university operates under different circumstances.

Hersh cited Yale, which contributes more than $1 million annually to the city of New Haven. But "you can't compare the two," she said, because New Haven has about 150,000 residents and the Borough has about 8,000, excluding University students.

Hersh defended the current level of contributions and the University's tax-exempt status. "Our mission benefits society enormously," she said. "Yes, we have a large endowment, but that money comes from people donating to us to support [an institution] that has made tremendous contributions to the world."

"We have been a resident of this town for 250 years, and we are the largest taxpayer," she said. "We will always do the right and appropriate thing to make the town a vital and healthy community."

But Trotman said, "I wish that I were in the position of being the largest taxpayer in the Borough. I don't feel swayed by that at all."