As state lawmakers scrambled for a compromise to win passage of a bill to revisit a special tax break for Yale, Mayor Toni Harp said she believes town-gown relations will survive unusual personal attacks levied against her and other elected officials.
“Listen,” Harp said Monday on the the “Mayor Monday” edition of WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “I was in the [state] General Assembly for 20 years plus. I got attacked all the time. It was meaningless to me.”
She added that she did contact one of the high-level Yale speakers who attacked her and State Sen. Martin Looney at a press conference last week.
“I did let [him] know that that I thought they had a little more dignity than all of that,” Harp said.
Harp was referring to a press conference led last Wednesday by Yale President Peter Salovey and Vice-President Bruce Alexander. Yale called the press conference to oppose Senate Bill 414. The bill seeks to clarify how a law passed in 1834 applies today; that 1834 law granted a special tax exemption to Yale and four other then-small Connecticut college and universities, over and above the general tax exemptions enjoyed by not-for-profit educational institutions, for entire buildings that generated under $6,000 a year in unrelated business income. (This story and this story offer background on the debate.)
At last Wednesday’s press conference in Woolsey Hall (a floor above where Mayor Harp subsequently held an inaugural ball three days later), Alexander singled out Looney and Harp by name. He spoke of how they were supporting a bill that Yale’s unions came up with. “It is interesting to note from whom some elected officials are taking direction and to ask if they are acting in the interest of all citizens in the state of Connecticut,” Alexander said. “… These legislators apparently are choosing to discourage the kind of research and educational institutions that create biotech companies.” Rather than stating that local elected officials are acting out of a genuine difference of opinion, Salovey accused them of “pursuing a political act that singles out Yale and would harm New Haven’s ability to grow its economy.”
Harp said Monday that she still supports the bill. She said her understanding is that as of early in the day it still lacked a needed vote or two to pass the State Senate.
She reiterated that the city is not looking to put academic properties, including labs or Woolsey Hall or Ingalls Rink, on the tax rolls, as Yale has claimed. She said she further agrees with Yale that buildings that have stores on the first floor but academic uses above should continue to generate taxes just on the first floor.
Rather, she said, the city wants to be able to independently assess what taxes Yale owes on commercial properties under the existing 1834 laws that governs mixed educational-commercial buildings. The economy has changed since 1834, so the law as currently written is too vague, she argued.
Asked how last week’s events will affect City Hall-Yale, town-gown relations, Harp responded, “It takes two to have a relationship.”
“We expect that we’ll still have a positive, productive relationship with Yale. I think it’s important for our economy that we work together. And Yale has been a good partner in so many areas,” including supporting the New Haven Promise college-scholarship program, she said.
Also on the WNHH program Monday, Harp spoke of her support for a proposal to start a city-chartered public school aimed at male teens of color. She spoke about riding an “e‑bike” in Saturday’s Rock-to-Rock mass riding event, or dancing in a Neville Wisdom-designed gown at Saturday night’s inaugural ball, and of directing her budget staff to draw up contingency plans if, despite the pleas of urban mayors, the legislature cuts its promised $15 million increase in municipal aid to New Haven during the final days of the session.
Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full episode.
Monday’s episode of “Dateline New Haven” was made possible in partnership with Gateway Community College.
Previous coverage of this issue:
• Yale Tax Bill Backers Respond
• Yale Tax Fight Turns To Tech
• Law Profs Dispute Yale’s Tax Arguments
• Yale Threatens To Evict Symphony
• Clergy Back Bill To Clarify Special Yale Tax Exemption
• Yale Fights Back; Lemar Rips “Scare Tactics”
It is sickening to hear Salovey give an impassioned speech over a few pennies that Yale would have to fork over to the State of Connecticut, and then make personal attacks against the Black mayor of the slum city of New Haven. The same man who decided that an advocate for slavery should be honored by keeping the name of Calhoun college. Why not name the new college after David Duke? And Salovey blames all of Yale's problems on those evil unions. What is the world coming to when the great intellectual racists at Yale must lower themselves into the gutters of New Haven and fight to keep their precious billions safe from the lowlifes who roam the streets of New Haven, Connecticut?