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Mayors want groups to pay Stratton’s initiative calls for nonprofi ts to pay for services
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

The New York Conference of Mayors is taking on Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton’s fight to get nonprofits to pay for police and fire protection.
If the lobbying group is successful, cities could force their nonprofits to pay millions every year in fees for services they actually use — but for which they pay nothing in taxes.
Union College, for example, would have to pay just more than $1 million to the city each year.
That’s far more than Stratton asked for when he began negotiating with the college two years ago. He asked the college to make a voluntary $370,000 payment in lieu of taxes. College officials refused, so Stratton took the fight to the state level.
   “It’s going to be controversial but cities have the right to address a real funding need,” Stratton said. “These are wonderful groups but the reality is we have to provide public safety services.”
   Union spokesman Phil Wajda said the college is opposed to paying fees of any kind.
   “We must remain true to our core mission, which is to provide the best education possible and make it accessible,” he said, adding that the college has helped the city attract new businesses.
   “The work on College Park Hall and Seward Place has reaped huge benefits for the city,” Wajda said. “Developers have told us the Big N Plaza would never have happened without what we had done across the street. Just take a look around.”
   Golub Corp. is to build its new headquarters at the Big N Plaza site and the YMCA projects its new exercise facility nearby.
   But the private development doesn’t offset the college’s tremendous cost to the city, Stratton said.
   Police were called to the campus 207 times in 2004, the most recent year for which data were available, and firefighters were called 275 times.
   Those trips cost the city a total of $370,000, Stratton said. He spent years negotiating with Union for a voluntary payment in lieu of taxes to cover those costs, but the college declined. He added that he’s not asking for state legislation just to make Union College pay for its share of police and fire costs.
“It’s not targeted specifically at Union College,” Stratton said. “The intent is to provide relief for the highest users.”
But he added that if he had to choose only a few nonprofits to charge, the college would be at the top of the list, along with Ellis and St. Clare’s hospitals. St. Clare’s President Robert Perry said he is deeply concerned by the proposal because of the hospital’s “serious financial difficulties.”
Spokeswoman Ceil Mack added, “St. Clare’s receives no subsidies from the city or county to help fund the care of Schenectady’s uninsured or underinsured residents and as a result, has incurred signifi - cant losses in recent years.”
   The hospital provides more than $7 million a year in charity care, and its physician-office buildings generate about $500,000 a year in tax revenue, she said.
   In response, Stratton backed off his original statement.
   “Obviously, our hospitals have some dire financial challenges and that would certainly be taken into consideration,” he said.
   If a fee is passed by the state, Stratton also doesn’t plan to collect from churches and other small users who have very few police and fire calls.
   “This is not targeted toward churches necessarily — unless there’s a gigantic church that’s causing lots of service needs,” he said. “You’d have to look at what is fair.”
   The Conference of Mayors on Monday made nonprofit fees one of its fi ve finance lobbying goals for the upcoming state legislative season.
   Under its proposal, each municipality would determine what percentage of its budget is earmarked for services used by the nonprofi ts — fire, police, street work, sanitation and similar items. In Schenectady, fire and police alone make up 48 percent of the budget, including benefits.
   Municipalities would then take that percentage and apply it to the assessment of each nonprofi t. Union College, which is assessed at $99.3 million, would be taxed on 48 percent of its assessment. Each nonprofit would then pay the full municipal tax rate on that reduced assessment.
   At the 2008 rate of $20.85 per $1,000 of assessed property, Union College would pay $1 million on a reduced assessment of $48.061 million.

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Stratton should be careful what he wishes for

   Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton may have gotten more than he bargained for when he uttered one of his favorite refrains — that Union College refuses to voluntarily contribute to the city to offset the cost of police and fire services it consumes — to the New York Conference of Mayors.
   The mayor’s association has now decided to champion Stratton’s cause statewide, and will lobby the Legislature to mandate such payments by nonprofits, which are exempt from property taxes, in cities like Schenectady.
   The problem, as Stratton seemed to acknowledge when a reporter informed him that both of Schenectady’s hospitals were unhappy with the plan, is that a lot of nonprofits couldn’t afford such assessments, especially if they were tied to a formula, as the Conference of Mayors proposes.
   Indeed, the formula — based on the size of the nonprofit’s property assessment and the percentage of city services it consumes — would force Union College to pay the city $1 million a year. That’s nearly triple the $370,000 Stratton has been trying to squeeze out of Union since becoming mayor.
   But it’s been like trying to squeeze money out of a rock, as Union officials have continually maintained that they do their part for Schenectady in other ways. They’re certainly not wrong, having breathed life into a moribund neighborhood west of the college’s campus and restored a marginal hotel building for use as a dormitory. (These actions have also resulted in properties being taken off the city’s tax rolls.)
   Stratton’s view is more right, however: Given that the college actually costs the financially ailing city hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for police and fire protection, some kind of payment in lieu of taxes seems warranted. Certainly other private educational institutions, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, make such payments; Union, which is on sound financial footing, should too.
   But the idea of an unwavering formula is difficult to swallow. And Stratton’s idea of making exceptions for small churches and fi nancially ailing hospitals, while logical, would be difficult with a formula in place. How would any line be drawn? Wouldn’t an institution that fell just on the other side of such a line be justifiably aggrieved?
   We think the best approach is the voluntary, case-by-case one. While it hasn’t borne much fruit for the city vis-a-vis a stubborn Union College, it hasn’t risked putting anyone else out of business. That could happen with a hardand-fast formula that allowed for no discretion.  

  
  
  

Does this include Proctor's Theater?  Are they paying taxes to support the police department, fire departments, etc?

I'd bet that they aren't.

I am not in favor of the non-profit's paying taxes as there are a lot of non-profits that couldn’t afford such assessments. Most non-profit organizations are either funded by it's members or donations. They do not have the availablity to bring in more income to cover these extra costs.

I feel that Mr.Stratton should think of cutting spending before he imposes another tax.

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Stratton’s view is more right, however: Given that the college actually costs the financially ailing city hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for police and fire protection, some kind of payment in lieu of taxes seems warranted. Certainly other private educational institutions, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, make such payments; Union, which is on sound financial footing, should too.

Someone is upset about decreasing payola......the downtown area will be a 'college downtown'.....dont worry and the revenues collected should more than cover the cost for fire/ambulance etc.....however, someone feels their house is not big enough and is demanding more $$.....get the leeches out......and the tax payers will be happy......the plebs dont want free $$ just truth and honesty......I guess the mayors raise has to come from somewhere.....