Word: exempted
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Summers gave West a dressing-down, what of it? It’s the place of a university president—as of any manager—to do that sometimes. And no one is exempt from such a challenge, even a sharply worded one; it’s simply a part of life. Those who cried “racism” and brought Jesse Jackson and others into the fray acted, I thought, in a cowardly as well as a bullying fashion...
...exempt non-profit institutions, such as universities and hospitals, own 51 percent of Boston real estate, significantly shrinking the city’s tax base. Harvard now owns more property in Boston than it does in Cambridge, even without including Harvard’s many affiliated hospitals and research institutions...
...city’s tax base is small. But at the same time, it’s hard to see why Harvard should be obliged to pay what it doesn’t owe. The tax laws of the U.S. government and each of the 50 states give tax-exempt status to many non-profits. They do so because we consider charitable, educational, scientific or religious institutions to serve a valid purpose and to contribute to society in a way that for-profit corporations do not. Under this view, soup kitchens should use whatever money they have to buy more...
...problem is that the benefits that Harvard produces are benefits to the nation and to the world as a whole, not necessarily to Watertown. The residents don’t have anything against universities; they just don’t want to pay to host one. The decision to exempt Harvard from taxation was made by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which does not bear evenly the cost of its decision. Thus, cities like Watertown have reason to adopt an attitude of “Not In My Backyard,” something more frequently encountered in discussions of nuclear plants...
...bill would discourage the founding of large charitable institutions in Massachusetts or the expansion of old ones, and all in all it’s a terrible idea. What the state government should be considering instead is a bill that would reimburse municipalities for the losses that large tax-exempt institutions create. That way, the reward for charitable work is preserved without placing a truly unequal burden on small towns. Such a system would also reduce the constant bickering over expansion and PILOT agreements that plagues Harvard’s relationships with its neighbors...