PRINCETON: Tax forum participants ask more from university

By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
  PRINCETON —  If Saturday was Communiversity in Princeton, Sunday was more like Commun-adversity.
   At a public tax forum, Princeton University, far from being regarded as the supportive partner of a day earlier, was, instead, portrayed as a self-interested, PR-driven fiefdom, unwilling to use its substantial resources to improve the financial wellbeing of its municipal neighbors.
   At a public forum attended by about 100 people, titled “Why Princeton University Should Pay its Fair Share of Property Taxes,” residents and public officials took turns decrying the university’s financial contributions to the borough and township as inadequate with its nonprofit tax-exempt status pushing residential taxpayers into hardship as they shouldered the university’s share of services.
   ”I’m in the same house I grew up in, and I don’t know if I can keep it,” said Alice Artzt, 66, a classical guitarist and Hawthorne Avenue resident.
   Ms. Artzt said she and her husband, Bruce Lawton, a freelance film historian, are behind on their property taxes, and her business teaching classical guitar to students is dwindling due to the poor economy.
   ”This is bad. This is not good. This is not how I expected to be spending my 66th year, worrying about losing my house,” Ms. Artzt said. “Princeton University could be helping, and they should be.”
   ”We’re here today because we have a problem in Princeton,” said Township Committeewoman Sue Nemeth. “You the taxpayers are subsidizing the wealthiest tax-exempt property owner in the state.”
   Ms. Nemeth is a founding member of Princeton Citizens for Tax Fairness, which sponsored the event.
   In tight budgetary times, both Princeton Borough and Princeton Township have been exploring ways of reducing the property tax burden on residents. Increasing the university’s contribution as well as municipal consolidation and other avenues are being explored. A joint public meeting of Borough Council and Township Committee on the subject of municipal consolidation was scheduled for Monday evening.
   ”Either the university does more or the taxpayers in our community will do less,” Ms. Nemeth said. “You have every right to ask the university to contribute its fair share to local government.”
   ”We therefore propose to begin a dialogue with Princeton University regarding its contribution to the borough and township,” said Borough Councilman Roger Martindell.
   He said that dialogue should include the public and be “categorically different” from previously private discussions between Princeton Borough’s mayor and administrator and university officials over the university’s financial contribution.
   ”It’s time,” he said.
   Ms. Nemeth said township officials had held similar private discussions with the university.
   ”The township has asked the university for support and been told no,” she said.
   She said voters should engage their elected officials on the matter.
   ”I recommend you ask each and every one of them where they stand on this issue and ask for their support,” she said.
   ”When it comes to election time, hold your elected officials accountable,” said Councilman David Goldfarb.
   ”I am sad to report that we appear to be a town divided,” said Councilman Kevin Wilkes.
   The university has embarked on an expansion plan that will add 20 million square feet of space to its campus in the next 10 to 15 years, taxing the roadways, schools, police and fire services, public works and other local government services, Mr. Wilkes said.
   ”As our property taxes go up to pay for this increasing demand, we undeniably change the face of our community,” Mr. Wilkes said.
   Those on fixed or subsistence incomes, blue collar and service workers, nonprofit employees, artists and others with limited financial resources, “all of these people cannot afford to live in Princeton,” he said.
   The university must increase its financial commitment to Princeton “to protect their host community from the negative impacts of their growth strategies,” Mr. Wilkes said.
       Mr. Wilkes took on the university’s argument that it should only pay for the costs of services provided to it. “The fact that they can make that argument and float it in our town and have it gain currency such that people think that would be enough shows just how much our expectations for civil excellence have been beaten down by the university-paid professional lobbyists,” he said.
   Mr. Wilkes quoted Robert Durkee, Princeton University vice president and secretary, as saying the university attracts visitors who boost community finances with parking fees and hotel taxes. In a reference to a contentious policy recently adopted by the Borough Council expanding metered parking hours, Mr. Wilkes said, “Thanks, Bob, but last time I took the pulse of the downtown merchants about this idea, they weren’t too pleased. Effectively, the university is saying that if we want to stick our hands in the visitors’ pockets for a parking meter, fine, but don’t you dare reach into our pockets, you ingrates.”
   ”We are not here to denigrate the core mission of Princeton University. Indeed, we support their mission,” Mr. Wilkes said. “But they need to adjust their mission in order to be a better partner in our community.”
   Mr. Goldfarb discussed a study conducted by the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, using 2006 tax assessments, which concluded if all university property was taxed, it would pay an additional $27 million in property taxes on top of the $7 million it actually paid, reducing property taxes 24 percent in the borough and 15 percent in the township for other property tax payers.
   In addition to the tax payments, the university contributes more than $1 million in lieu of taxes to the borough. It makes no such payments to the township.
   Borough Republican Committee Chairman Dudley Sipprelle read from an unsolicited e-mail he said he had received earlier in the week from an “unaffiliated voter” who was having to sell their home and move because of high property taxes.
   ”The institutions are responsible for their part of the burden. None of us can support them any longer,” Mr. Sipprelle read.
   He said residents should ask their elected representatives to back a process for changing state law so the university would be fully taxed.
   ”First and foremost, hope is not a strategy,” said borough resident Tamara Jacobs in asking what the benefit to the university of giving more money would be.
   ”Diversity, and we’ve seen that disappear, and it’s disappearing at an incredibly rapid rate,” Mr. Goldfarb said, to applause.
   To further applause, Mr. Wilkes said, “If the university was smart, they would not invest only in Dubai or heavily in Silicon Valley” but also would “invest in the community.”
   Peter Kann, a borough resident and former CEO of Dow Jones, said in his experience, large, powerful institutions “react to specific pressure” and not to petitions and public meetings.
   ”So I’d like to ask you what pressure points you have?” Mr. Kahn said.
   ”I see this as a long process,” said Mr. Goldfarb, with growing public interest and pressure prodding the university to action. “I believe that when the pressure is increased, we will see the level of contributions improve.”
   Given the university’s tax-exempt status, there was little Princeton could do to compel it to pay more, Mr. Martindell said. But a public “groundswell” could spur it to, he said.
   ”If that takes a trip down to Nassau Hall by 1,000 people, so be it. I’m there,” he said.
   Borough resident and former Councilwoman Wendy Benchley said she agreed.
   ”Quite honestly, I began to realize we didn’t have the power. We Borough Council and we Township Committee, they did not listen to us,” Ms. Benchley said.
   Other residents stood up and urged everything from a formal study of the university’s cost to the community to marching on Nassau Hall immediately.
   At the end of the meeting, to a smattering of boos from the audience, Princeton University Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget took the microphone.
   ”I would like to ask for some clarity on how to have these conversations,” Ms. Appelget said.
   In her three years at the university, Ms. Appelget said, “I know from my personal experience conversation can work. Please, just some clarity on how you would like to have those conversations.”
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