Yale's latest voluntary payment check to the city, included in a communication submitted to the Board of Alders.
Serena Cho photo
Yale VP Lauren Zucker: "Historic new partnership" now in effect.
One check, $14.4 million.
New Haven received that cash infusion two weeks ago, as part of a recently inked new agreement with Yale that has now started kicking in.
A picture of that voided check is included in a May 26 letter sent by Yale Associate Vice President for New Haven and University Properties Lauren Zucker to city Budget Director Michael Gormany. That letter, in turn, was submitted by the Elicker Administration to the Board of Alders as a communication included on Monday night’s Board of Alders meeting agenda.
“Attached is a check in the amount of $14,438,281 which, together with the check we submitted in August, equates to a voluntary payment by Yale university to the City of New Haven (inclusive of our voluntary fire service payment) for FY2022 totaling $23,201,625,” Zucker wrote to Gormany. The check is dated May 23.
“This amount reflects the historic new partnership between the City of New Haven and Yale and is adjusted for the actual fire service payment. This year’s payment continues to represent the highest single voluntary payment from a university to a host city anywhere in the United States.”
That “historic new partnership” that Zucker referred to is a six-year agreement with Yale that was negotiated by the Elicker Administration last year and approved by the Board of Alders in April. Those negotiations came after years of grassroots advocacy by groups like New Haven Rising and Yale’s labor unions to pressure the university to contribute more to its home city.
One of the central planks of the agreement is Yale’s commitment to increasing its voluntary payments to the city by a total of $52 million over the next six years — or by $10 million in each of the next five years, and by $2 million in the last year of the deal.
That increased contribution comes a year after Yale saw its endowment skyrocket in value by $12.1 billion, to a total of $42.3 billion. It also comes after Yale’s tax-exempt properties have increased in value by $700 million over the past five years to a new tax-exempt total of around $4.2 billion, according to the latest citywide property revaluation.
The first page of Zucker's May 26 letter to Gormany.
Zucker included in her May 26 letter to Gormany a chart showing every voluntary payment that the university has made to the city since it first began making such direct payments in Fiscal Year 1991. The chart shows that those payments have increased from around $1.1 million that first year, to $7.8 million a decade later, to $13 million last fiscal year, to $23.2 million this current fiscal year.
“These voluntary payments are in addition to other substantial payments that the University makes to the City of New Haven, including being one of the top three real estate taxpayers in New Haven, with nearly $5 million in real estate tax payments this fiscal year as a result of our community investment program,” Zucker continued.
“Yale is also the primary donor for scholarships offered by New Haven Promise, providing up to $5 million per year for city students who meet certain criteria and graduate from a New Haven public school and attend college in Connecticut. The Yale University Homebuyer Program strengthens the tax base and has committed over $35 million in funds to assist over 1,300 employees in their purchase of homes in New Haven, with an aggregate value of approximately $268 million.
“We are proud to be part of this great city and pleased to support vital city services delivered in every neighborhood and ward.”
The new city-Yale agreement covers more than just increased voluntary payments.
It will also see Yale convert High Street between Chapel and Elm Streets downtown into a new publicly owned plaza open to pedestrians and bicycles, but closed to automobiles. Yale has also pledged to invest $5 million towards the creation of a new Center for Inclusive Growth, to be run by Yale School of Management Dean Kerwin Charles. And the city has established a new 12-year slide scale for local property taxes on properties newly acquired and converted to tax-exempt status by the university.
What’s the latest with the Center for Inclusive Growth? When will that initiative begin? Does it have a board? What’s going on there?
“We continue to be in the information gathering phase of planning for the Center,” Zucker told the Independent in an emailed comment. “Moving into the fall we will continue to engage with community stakeholders and look forward to discussing the Center at several Community Management Team meetings and other forums.”
Click here, here, and here to read more about the terms of the new city-Yale deal.
YAY! Yale is paying more AND our taxes are going up! Thank you union backed alder board, labor groups, neighborhood organizers for looking our for yourselves!!