University to make $50,000 payment to West Windsor

The Township council approved the voluntary payment, which will be adjusted annually for inflation, at a meeting this past Monday.

The University’s Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget explained that the 81.5 acres of land within the Township owned by the University, which is tax-exempt as a nonprofit educational institution, was purchased from Sarnoff Corporation in 2002.

“This land is along Route One North in West Windsor Township and is adjacent to other property along Route One that is owned by Princeton University,” she said in an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian.

The University does not currently conduct any activities on the land, and there are no buildings on the location. Yet the property has been farmed by the University since the land was assessed for designation as farmland in 2008. The payment is meant to compensate for the Township’s resulting loss of revenue, Appelget said.

“During conversations in 2002 at the time that the property was purchased, University officials committed to West Windsor officials that if the property was farmed and qualified for farmland assessment in the future, that the University would make a voluntary financial payment to West Windsor Township,” Appelget noted.

West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh explained that West Windsor loses money on the University’s property by virtue of the land being taxed at the rate accorded to farmland.

“The property Princeton University owns is supposed to be commercial property … so this is a loss to West Windsor Township,” Hsueh said, calling the University’s donation “a type of compensation” for the reduced tax income.

Though the first payment was made in 2008, the formal agreement came as a result from a request from Hsueh, who asked the University to “formally commit to the annual payment in a memorandum of understanding,” Appelget said.

“We wanted to keep a good relationship with the University, but we didn’t want our taxpayers to have to pay higher taxes to make up for the loss, so this was a good deal,” Hsueh added. “It is a win-win situation.”

In an interview with The Times of Trenton, Hsueh said the PILOT “bodes well for the township’s future relationship with the University,” which was also strengthened by the University’s $20,000 contribution to the West Windsor Arts Council this year. “Hopefully, we will have more joint efforts in the future,” he added.

Princeton’s new West Windsor PILOT is not the only one the University makes. The University paid Princeton Borough $1,176,030.20 last year as part of a PILOT agreement that will expire in 2011. The University does not have a PILOT agreement with Princeton Township.

Yet some Princeton residents have taken issue with the size of the University’s payments. In April, more than 100 people attended a town hall meeting hosted by Princeton Citizens for Tax Fairness (PCTF). A private bipartisan group, PCTF advocates for the University to pay full property taxes, though much of the campus is tax-exempt under New Jersey state law.

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University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee ’69 told the ‘Prince’ last April that the University actually opted to pay taxes of up to $3.5 million on property it could have taken off the tax rolls. This sum was in addition to the $8.9 million the University had already paid in property taxes to the Borough and Township.

“We have long ago decided that some contribution is appropriate,” Durkee said, adding that ultimately, though, “Princeton University is an educational institution, which is the reason it’s tax-exempt.”

When contacted this week, Durkee referred all questions about the West Windsor PILOT to Appelget.