The council puts more pressure on the colleges to pay up
At Monday’s City Council meeting, a report on the number of police, fire, and inspection service incidences at city colleges and universities was discussed, placing another piece in the puzzle being assembled by payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) advocates looking for rationales to make the higher education institutions pay up.
The take-away: That over a 24-month period, the city colleges and universities cost the city somewhere between $1.5 million and $2 million in police, fire, and inspectional services. And that number could rise after Councilor Phil Palmieri asked for another similar report on incidents in the areas near schools. The intent is to focus on off-campus apartments, though other neighbors will surely be swept up in the data crunch.
Already, Palmieri and friends are seizing on the evidence as another prime example of why a formal PILOT program needs to be in place, ASAP.
What about the other side of the coin? On Tuesday, there was a request by councilors for information on how much fiscal impact two specific Colleges of Worcester Consortium programs have in the city and Consortium head Mark Bilotta spoke in front of the council. Yet, there has been little talk in the most recent debate about the overall impact of the schools in Worcester.
Let’s turn to the Consortium for some answers.
Earlier this year, the group put out a report estimating some of the economic impact their member schools bring; a more comprehensive report is expected within the next month. Among the numbers cited:
• $12 million in scholarships offered to Worcester residents
• 19,000 alumni living in Worcester
• $55 million spent on goods and services in Worcester
• $256 million in payroll to Worcester residents
• $550,000 paid in real estate taxes to the City of Worcester
• $950,000 to the Hanover Theatre
• 9,900 students spending 590,000 hours of community service to 450 organizations at an estimated value of $11 million.
Even if the colleges and universities really cost the city double that “conservative” $1.5 million estimate, it’s clear the schools contribute more in straight up dollars than they cost, PILOT opponents say. And that’s only in quantifiable data, never mind the general impact of bringing outsiders into the city at a higher rate than any other city industry.
But the report and ensuing conversation was emblematic of the new tact called for by Palmieri and Paul Clancy earlier this year: straight out pressure on the universities to pay up.
Bilotta says the pressure, though maybe politically savvy, has little impact. “I don’t think that our colleges are necessarily swayed by pressure. I think we try to be more thoughtful and strategic in our decisions in terms of partnerships or any commitments [elected officials] are trying to make,” Bilotta says.
“We’re not driven by the word of elected officials; we’re driven by our mission.”
The always diplomatic Bilotta gives a nod to the frustration some anti-PILOT people have expressed: That few councilors have acknowledged what it is the schools actually do already before calling on them to do more.
“If someone decides to call something PILOT that’s fine. [We’ve worked] 90,000 hours with Worcester schools. The community never looked at that as PILOT. That’s quite a commitment to Worcester public schools.”
On Tuesday, Councilor Barbara Haller acknowledged those concerns, calling such efforts SILOT – services in lieu of taxes. But, she said, such efforts are mutually beneficial, and schools have marketed their community efforts to prospective students. And in a tough economic time, she said, the city needs to phrase any PILOT negotiation as a request for the colleges to dig a bit deeper.
“We are both gaining from that experience…[but] what we’re saying as a city is ‘we’re hurting.’”
Still, Bilotta says that the universities and colleges won’t simply jump on any suggestion or demand the council makes.
“There’s been an opportunity presented to us by the city to take a look at what type of strategic partnership [can be formed] and what type of buy-in there would be from institutions. There’s no time frame. In order for us to be thoughtful, it will take some time. We won’t take whatever,” Bilotta says. o
