State Sen. Wayne Fontana said today that he will introduce legislation allowing municipalities to charge tax-exempt institutions a fee based on their property holdings.

Mr. Fontana said it would allow municipalities to negotiate voluntary payments with universities, hospital systems and other large institutions that aren’t subject to property taxes. If that failed, the municipalities could charge them a services fee based on their buildings’ square footage. A tax-exempt institution’s first 50,000 square feet of floor space would be exempt, but any space above that would be assessed at $100 per 1,000 square feet.

“It’s my opinion that they have a financial obligation to the city or the municipality for the services that they get,” Mr. Fontana said. “They have vast amounts of real estate that they have accumulated.”

Mr. Fontana said that he was motivated in part by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s effort to place a tax on tuition at colleges, universities, trade schools and possibly other institutions of post-secondary education. He questioned its legality, and noted that there’s a move afoot in Harrisburg to ban the tuition tax.

Read the full Post-Gazette article here

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