Conn College and Passero expected to meet soon
School’s annual $12,500 payment to city expires at end of this fiscal year
New London — Connecticut College’s president said she likely will meet with the city’s mayor “fairly soon” to begin negotiations, as an agreement in which the college is paying $12,500 a year to the city is set to expire at the end of this fiscal year.
“What we’re going to want to do is figure out what makes the most sense for the city and for the college,” Conn College President Katherine Bergeron told The Day’s Editorial Board on Thursday.
Conn College and the city agreed in 2007 for the college to pay the city $100,000 over the course of 10 years.
City Mayor Michael Passero declined in a phone interview to comment on upcoming discussions with the college. But he said the city will be engaging in a wider strategy to ask nonprofits to voluntarily pay more for the city services they consume, as state revenues to municipalities are drying up.
In the meeting with the Editorial Board, Bergeron also said she could not offer specifics since the discussions had not yet occurred, but she emphasized that she would like to see the continuation of “mutually beneficial” partnerships between the city and the college.
Among those collaborations, she mentioned a transportation grant for the improvement of Williams Street sidewalks, efforts for longterm improvements to Route 32, and the $30,000 donation to the city police of two speed trailers for Route 32 — which were installed after a hitand-run accident on Route 32 claimed the life of a Connecticut College student.
Bergeron said the college purchased the trailers in response to the need to calm traffic on Route 32, but said city police can use them around the city, when the college is not in session, or when they may no longer be needed on Route 32, due to potential improvements.
When asked by The Day’s Editorial Board if the college has a philosophical objection to a cash payment in lieu of taxes to the city, she said the college doesn’t have that objection and will be talking about that issue again.
“I can’t tell you what that number is or will be, because we haven’t had the conversations yet, but we are going to be open to considering [it],” she said.
But she also highlighted the importance of acting in ways consistent with the college’s mission.
“The city of New London has the mission to support the citizens of the city of New London,” she said. “We have the mission to deliver high-quality higher education to people from all over the United States and internationally and to actually maintain our reputation for the benefit of the city that we inhabit, so we have to balance those things.”
The Editorial Board raised the point that the college is located in a distressed city at a time when, in general, the issue of enough public financing has become so critical that every level of government needs to look for other sources of revenue, including asking tax-exempt entities to contribute. It would be easier for the city if it had an agreement that would allow it to expect a certain amount of money or certain percentage or formula as time moves forward.
Bergeron said Connecticut has a model that recognizes the value of sustaining nonprofits while also recognizing the potential strain they place on municipalities: the payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program. However, the state does not fully fund it.
The program calls for the state to reimburse towns 77 percent of the tax revenue lost from colleges and hospital property, but the state reimbursed towns less than 30 percent in Fiscal Year 2017, according to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
She said Connecticut College may be less of a strain than other institutions, since the college is not in the middle of the city and runs its own waste management, power and snow removal services that otherwise would be a burden on the city’s resources.
But she said she understands the point, and the college has taken it and will take it very seriously.
She added the college wants to continue the great relationships it has with the mayor, police department and neighbors. She pointed out the college’s benefits to the greater community, for example the people who benefit from the college’s athletic facilities and arboretum.
She also highlighted the Connecticut College graduates who contribute to the state after graduation, including 673 alumni who are currently involved in teaching or administration in Connecticut, and 150 who are private business owners in Connecticut.
With about 45 percent of the city’s property being tax exempt, Passero said in a phone interview Thursday the town is supposed to get PILOT revenue from the state to cover the lost revenue. But as the city anticipates a steep drop in revenue from the state, he said the remaining 55 percent of the city can no longer pay for all of the city’s services.
The city will reach out to other nonprofits to appeal to them to voluntarily start covering the cost of services they consume, until the legislature reforms the laws surrounding nonprofits and property taxes.
“We’re engaging in a strategy where we’re going to be contacting many of the nonprofits in town to engage them in conversations about their civic duty to start paying for the city services they are consuming,” he said. “At the same time, we are preparing to put forward an agenda before the legislature in the next session. We’re going to go much more aggressively and find more partners to get the legislature to correct the law on this.”