This is important.
PILOTs stands for Payments in Lieu of Taxes. Philadelphia has the highest percentage of land owned by non profits of any city in the country; nonprofits own more than 10% of the land in Philadelphia yet are not required to pay property taxes. Property tax is a critical source of revenue for public schools. Since Thomas Jefferson University is one of the wealthiest nonprofits that is not required to pay property taxes to the city, we ask for Jefferson to opt in to paying PILOTs, a common practice done by several wealthy nonprofits across the country, to continue supporting the local community. Notable examples include the PILOTs agreement Boston has with its nonprofits, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and even Thomas Jefferson University itself from 1995-2000.
Jefferson owns hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property in the city of Philadelphia. To put this massive sum into perspective: the real estate tax rate is 1.3998%. Our intention is for Jefferson to commit 40% of its exempted property taxes to the city of Philadelphia to the School District of Philadelphia to be used to remediate environmentally hazardous schools. To break this down even further, we’re asking for only 0.55992% of its total property value. Schools are intended to foster a productive environment for learning, and yet Philadelphia’s public schools do not even have the sufficient funding to keep the students, workers, and educators in the school system safe and healthy. Philadelphia city schools were found to have toxic levels of asbestos and lead, schools are closing, and numerous school staff were let go, leading to deadly consequences. Since October 2019, 11 schools serving a total of 6,850 students have been forced to close due to asbestos exposure concerns (Figure 1). Furthermore, approximately 80% of Philadelphia schools were built before 1978 and likely contain asbestos. As members of a health-oriented institution, we promote quality of life and longevity for all Philadelphians. Thomas Jefferson University needs to do its part to make sure that students, workers, and educators in the city of Philadelphia have the resources to be and learn well.
2020 was a year that emphasized the severity of our failing healthcare system and the violence that Black people across the United States face - the chronic underfunding of our schools shows these two issues side-by-side. The School District of Philadelphia reports their student demographics as 52% Black/African-American, 21% Hispanic/Latino, 14% White, 7% Asian, and 5% Multiracial. Pennsylvania also provides the 4th least state funding for schools in the United States and Philadelphia is the largest poorest city in the United States. Wealthier (and often whiter) suburban districts are able to collect more local tax revenue through property taxes, and their school districts benefit from much greater funding than poorer Blacker districts (as shown with Philadelphia). Research collected by another Philadelphia-based nonprofit, Public Citizens for Children and Youth, showed that even though the tax effort in Philadelphia was much higher than the neighboring Lower Merion District, the wealth that exists in that district brings in much more funding to Lower Merion schools than it does for Philadelphian schools (Figure 2). PILOTs is a racial justice issue. Philadelphia does possess much more wealth than the city has access to. Wealthy nonprofits own high value real estate and can aid this long existing financial crisis by providing PILOTs. Jefferson promotes strong advocacy for those we serve, finding innovative solutions to the problems we face, and putting people first. Funding safe, valuable primary education for the children in our community is directly in line with Jefferson’s mission to improve lives and reimagine health and education. |
Figure 1. Click on images to zoom.