Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Go ahead, Luzerne County officials, and schedule a sit-down with the heads of the area’s biggest land-owning nonprofits.
Ask them if they will pay money to the county each year as a kind of less costly alternative to property taxes, from which they are exempt. Make your best case for why the county deserves this financial support in exchange for its 911 dispatch and other services.
Don’t be surprised, however, if the answer from many organizations is no.
Since at least 2004, Luzerne County government leaders have tip-toed around the notion of “payments in lieu of taxes,” known by the acronym PILOTs. The county’s financial consultant, Public Financial Management, repeatedly has suggested PILOTs be more widely pursued from hospitals and colleges as a part of this debt-burdened county’s recovery plan. Some nonprofits already do voluntarily contribute a combined $146,000 per year, but another half-million dollars probably could be collected, according to the consultant’s recent estimate.
David Pedri, Luzerne County’s acting manager, recently revived the pitch for a more coordinated request for PILOT contributions. County council members appear to be on board. They gave the go-ahead to schedule a special session later this year to which certain nonprofit leaders will be invited.
Pedri and others would be wise to approach the meeting with a nothing-ventured, nothing-gained spirit and a well-prepared presentation that spells out the county’s beneficial operations and associated costs. Don’t resort to thinly veiled arm-twisting.
After all, the county has no authority to compel payments. And the PILOT issue remains a hot-button topic in much of the nation’s nonprofit community.
A 2012 blog posting on the Urban Institute’s website bluntly questions whether the payments are “fair play or extortion.” Similarly, the National Council of Nonprofits provides information on its website suggesting PILOTS represent a poor solution to governments’ budget woes and wrongly siphon cash from nonprofit groups’ missions.
Nevertheless, representatives of Wilkes University and other nonprofits in Greater Wilkes-Barre have expressed a willingness to discuss the matter with Luzerne County in good faith.
Participants on either side should enter this year’s PILOT discussion after doing some soul-searching and research, with a desire to understand what each faces. For instance, naysayers who contend Wilkes-Barre’s downtown colleges continue to grab land without ponying up taxes probably don’t have a full understanding of all the ways in which these institutions contribute to the area’s economic well-being. By the same token, Luzerne County services, including the criminal justice system and emergency management, often go underappreciated.
In the end, Luzerne County might not receive all for which its leaders hoped. But, like a wallflower at the school dance who’s been held back by a fear of rejection, it’s about time they at least asked.