Colleges, universities and hospitals are among the non-profit organizations in the U.S. that are exempt from property taxes because they serve a larger social good. At the same time, some of these entities have enormous wealth and operate in poor cities that are struggling — even more so now under the COVID-19 pandemic. While it’s true that wealthy institutions have lost significant wealth in the pandemic stock market downturn, Yale University, for example, had an endowment of more than $30 billion at the start of the pandemic and is still among the wealthiest universities in the world.
A diverse group of New Haven community organizations and Yale unions called Yale: Respect New Haven, held a press conference on May 26 outside the office of Yale President Peter Salovey, demanding that the university pay its home city the $146 million annually that it avoids paying through an education tax exemption. The group also targeted Yale-New Haven Hospital. Their petition asserts that 40 percent of New Haven residents are currently unable to afford the basic needs of housing and food; 34 percent of the city’s children live in poverty; and New Haven’s public schools operate at a severe and recurring deficit.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Sarah Miller, a leader of a group of public school parents and co-chair of New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker’s transition team. Elicker, who took office on Jan. 1, and during his election campaign, called on Yale to make a $50 million annual payment to the city. Kiana Flores, a New Haven resident and junior at one of the city’s public high schools also spoke at the news conference.
SARAH MILLER: We were watching inequality in the city get deeper and broader and now VOCID-19 has sort of brought it to a head. We know that the people facing the biggest crises are those people able to withstand that. We know that this is like a structural imbalance and it’s not an accident of history. It’s a result of a history of racism. Also, part of it is Yale’s enormous property footprint for which they pay very limited taxes. You know, we have this charitable purpose. It allows Yale the tax exemption, which is education and yet our public schools have deficits and can’t afford core staff or supplies. And we know that the structural problem there is that there just isn’t enough money in the system to do what needs to be done for our kids. And meanwhile, the university and hospital’s wealth increases by millions every day and they’ve suffered some losses due to Covid-19, but they’re very well positioned to weather them.
And every time this is raised, the university pushes back very predictably with its list of charitable endeavors, which are nice programs that don’t really address the fundamental need or structural challenge. And last year we (the city) lost $146 million in revenue so that would have been the tax on Yale’s property if they were paying taxes. Instead of it going to public services in New Haven, it went to an already multibillion-dollar endowment to a charitable purpose. To advantage education and improve health should be happening not just within the walls of Yale, but also in our city. And that would require Yale to make a commitment to make up the city’s full lost property revenue this year and every year into the future. So that’s what we’re asking for.
MELINDA TUHUS: That was Sarah Miller with a new coalition called Yale: Respect New Haven. Another speaker at the news conference was Kiana Flores, a lifelong New Haven resident and a junior at one of the city’s public high schools.
KIANA FLORES: As I’ve grown up, I’ve seen schools where we don’t have enough desks, we don’t have enough chairs or we simply just don’t have enough money to actually give our students what they deserve. These amazing opportunities to help them in life. So you know, seeing that lack of equity has been really disheartening. So, I think that people are really seeing, especially in this time during the pandemic, that Yale’s support and assistance through financial means is necessary.
MELINDA TUHUS: Kiana Flores, one of Yale’s signature programs over the past decade has been its collaboration with the city and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven on the New Haven Promise program, which funds college scholarships for qualified New-Haven high school graduates. Are you eligible for that program? And what do you think about Yale’s involvement?
KIANA FLORES: As someone who is eligible for the New Haven Promise, I can say that I think it is an amazing program and that it really gives us New Haven students a lot of opportunities. But what’s unfortunate is that not every student is going to meet that criteria and there are so many factors that come behind that rather than just a student is too lazy or a student doesn’t have the right grades. Because we have students in schools that are underfunded, that do not have the resources to be able to allow their students to really thrive to really show their potential, this criteria of attendance and grade point average is almost unfair in a way because we have students who might have to take on another job when they turn 16 because they need to support their family.
So that might mean that they might not be able to turn in assignments or they’re coming to class exhausted from their job or they just do not simply have the time to think about school because they are so worried helping their parents put food on the table. It’s astonishing that some students have jobs or are taking care of their siblings and trying to manage school as well. And so I think it puts an enormous amount of pressure on the students when their households cannot manage itself financially because they just do not have adequate resources. There are just so many other places that Yale could directly and indirectly help the students so that more students can then take part in that program.
MELINDA TUHUS: What do you want to see happen with this effort?
KIANA FLORES: I hope that we get more recognition. Obviously, this process is very lengthy and there are a lot of, you know, nitty gritty details that must be addressed, but I really hope that not only will this petition be spread throughout our community so we can get more support from other organizations and community individuals, but Yale would release the statement. We’ll listen to what we have to say. And so, yeah, I really hope that this petition will be able to connect New Haven to Yale more than it has been in the past, and just for them to really acknowledge what we feel and what we have been continuously pleading for in the last years. So I really hope that in some way this will allow Yale and New Haven a representative to meet because in the past, the financial office has been so secluded and isolated and I believe that is not correct or right. So yeah, I really hope this opens an opportunity for transparency and for real equity.
For more information, visit Respect New Haven at actionnetwork.org/groups/yale-respect-new-haven.
