Choate’s tax-exempt status prompts political debate - Record Journal
I would encourage folks to watch the meeting (posted on YouTube) and listen to all of the commentary both pro and con. Questions raised by resident (and Choate neighbor) Phillip Youker about the process of moving residential properties into a category of 'dormitory from a planning and zoning perspective are ones that could be handled in a very bipartisan manner. Having that discussion might be the place to start where folks could all be on the same page...
Choate’s tax-exempt status prompts political debate
By Kate Ramunni Record-Journal staff
“The initial topic was Choate’s expansion, so that’s why the item is outlined as citizen concerns with respect to Choate expansion activities, but the conversation is bigger than that,” Zandri said. “One of the issues we have with any social media avenue is the fact that data and information tend to not only be marginalized and opinionized, sometimes it’s entirely misdirected.”
“Technically we can’t (tax Choate) because of the kind of institution that they are,” Zandri said. “Why aren’t we collecting any type of PILOT from them? At the same time, it’s important to understand the element of that ask.”
“I wanted to quantify how much property Choate has bought up because I think sometimes perception and reality are different things,” he said. “The way people talk, it sounds like they’re buying up property every other weekend.”
“There’s only 10 properties that they’ve bought and maintained and kept over 23 years.”
The school also receives bequests of property in wills.
But Councilor Christina Tatta pointed to the amount of revenue the town is losing based on the school’s holdings. The total assessment for those properties is $170,134,640, she said, which would translate to $4.9 million in revenue for the town. In reality, the school pays $17,618 in taxes on its property that is taxable, she said.
The school has bought homes for faculty and their families, including their children that can be attending Wallingford public schools.
That should warrant a conversation about asking the school to offset those costs, said Jesse Reynolds, whose family has lived across the street from the school for about a century.
“I don’t see why the town can’t come forward and say, ‘Hey let’s talk about the arrangement that we have,’” he said. “Faculty live in homes that were on tax rolls and their children attend our schools. There is a cost there. There’s a lot of money we don’t collect and when it is suggested they should, they say they do a lot for the town. Well, a lot of organizations do alot for the town. I think it needs to be revisited.”
The school isn’t required to pay anything to the town, Zandri said.
But that risks losing what the school is already doing, and if that should stop, Zandri said, it could result in the school agreeing to pay a PILOT that is less than the value of what it already contr ibutes.
“There’s always been resentment by certain people in the community that this independent organization doesn’t pay taxes,” he said.
“I look at Choate in large measure as open space,” he said. “Residents don’t pay their fair share. They can’t be charged the way businesses are charged. I really have a question about whether we want to start hammering an organization that has been a good neighbor to this community since its inception and that we feel entitled to tax. I think we are missing the big picture of what Choate does for this town and in being the center of this community. It makes it a much richer and frankly less dense town center. I think we should be happy about that. I think it’s made a world of difference how this town feels to the rest of us who live here.”
Nonprofits are recognized as tax exempt as a matter of public policy, Dickinson said.
Staying relevant
“In the past, and particularly in the last 12 months, we have been asked about the school’s building and renovation plans, the transparency of those plans and the goals of our projects and plans for the future,” she said. “In order to remain a top independent boarding school, Choate will need to invest and upgrade and maintain its physical plant. Our prospective students and families have evolved.
The town has never asked for a conversation about the possibility of the school making a voluntary contribution to the town, Cady said. She couldn’t say whether the school would agree to that discussion, she said.
“In my opinion, Choate provides so much of a great community partnership and so many services to the town and economic development beyond what they’re doing on their own campus,” Councilor Autumn Allinson said. “I’ll hear people out, but it would be a long leap for me to say that I would want to change their structure because they are extremely helpful to us and they do elevate the town of Wallingford in my opinion.”
“It’s easy to talk about the PILOT programs, and is certainly a conversation that can be kicked around whether that would be a PILOT or not, but I think that came up because it is something tangible that we can discuss,” he said. “That won’t resolve what really kickstarted all this, which is the ‘not in my backyard’ frustration in that area, and that will always exist. It is not going to solve that problem.”