Press Releases and Coverage

News Coverage Jolyon Thomas News Coverage Jolyon Thomas

Can urban universities be better neighbors?

In 2020, with a new push by activists, a group of staff and faculty launched a petition called Penn for PILOTs. The organization calculated that if the university were to pay 40% of the property tax rate on the land it owns, the annual total would be $40 million, or about 0.35% of the university's annual revenues. (If passed through directly to the school system, the sum would represent a 2.5% increase in funding from the local government, which covers about half of the system's annual operating expenses.)

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Podcast Jolyon Thomas Podcast Jolyon Thomas

The 100-Million Dollar Question

Interviewer: KATIE RADER. For decades, University of Pennsylvania student activists have demanded that Penn pay PILOTs (Payments in Lieu of Taxes) to help fund Philadelphia public schools. The movement intensified in 2020, with over 1,100 faculty and staff joining a pro-PILOTs petition. Among them was Social Policy and Practice Professor DENNIS CULHANE, who in September joined a panel discussion on PILOTs sponsored by the Mitchell Center. In his discussion with political scientist Katie Rader, he revisits the topic in the wake of Penn’s donation of $100-million over ten years for environmental remediation of Philadelphia schools. He addresses whether this amount is the fair share that PILOTs activists have demanded, but also whether unilateral, voluntary donations are a path to true equity. He suggests that the Pennsylvania legislature make revisions to the state’s tax code to ensure a more reliable source of funds for public education.

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Opinion Jolyon Thomas Opinion Jolyon Thomas

Penn’s $100 million to Philly schools is no permanent substitute for PILOTs | Opinion

Ten million per year represents about 10% of what Penn would owe in property taxes. In other cities like Boston, New Haven, Conn., and Providence, R.I., wealthy nonprofits have agreed to pay PILOTs above that standard. Many in Philadelphia have called on the university to pay 40% of what it would owe in property taxes to the public schools — an estimated $40 million per year. That’s a reasonable figure. Other nonprofits should also step up so that Philadelphia’s public schools have the money needed to educate the next generation.

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News Coverage Jolyon Thomas News Coverage Jolyon Thomas

Penn’s $100 million pledge has a backstory

Activist leaders on campus and across the city have called for a donation like this for a long time. They want Penn to pay payments in lieu of taxes, known as PILOTs, calling foul on the regulations that allow a nonprofit that owns $3.2 billion in city real estate to skip property taxes. Like the tax dollars contributed by other property owners in the city, their payments could towards public schools and infrastructure, these critics say.

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