A new bill proposal from Councilmember Phylicia Porter would create a task force of residents, union members and appropriate nonprofit stakeholders to make recommendations during the city’s PILOT renegotiation with its largest anchor institutions.
Baltimore’s largest 14 non-profit hospitals and universities pay a collective $6M between them instead of property taxes in an agreement called a PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes. That negotiation, originally brokered under Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is up for renegotiation next year.
Those colloquially called “eds and meds”, like Johns Hopkins University and Bon Secours, use about $47M worth of city services annually, according to the city comptroller.
With a task force, there is a transparent and public way for the public to be involved, Porter says.
“I know that there have been efforts in the past to get community members involved,” says the District 10 councilmember. “But this just elevates it to another level that provides more front-facing legislative mandating to the task force.”
Porter worked in partnership with the coalition With Us For Us for the bill proposal. With Us For Us is a Baltimore advocacy group made of unions and social justice groups who believe that the city’s current PILOT with its anchor institutions does not serve the city’s residents.
“The point of the task force is that it's a collaborative and open approach to renegotiating the agreement in contrast to the original deal, which had no input from regular Baltimore City residents,” wrote Leyla Adali, a spokesperson for 1199SEIU Maryland/DC Division. The union represents workers at major academic medical centers and is a part of the With Us For Us coalition.
Because the goal of the task force is to establish a transparent process for renegotiating the PILOT, it's important for it to be made up of Baltimoreans from different backgrounds and to include representatives of key institutions. We want to reconfigure the PILOT to benefit the city and its residents, so having that diverse group is necessary,” said Adali.
In the report published last year, Comptroller Bill Henry’s first recommendation upon review of the PILOT agreement was that PILOT negotiations should be “ public and transparent to ensure accountability and community involvement.”
In an interview with WYPR, Porter stressed that she wanted the taskforce to be educational for the public. “...on what the PILOT is, making sure that they understand the institutions that are involved, and making sure they understand where those funds are going, after negotiation as well.”
The bill proposal comes at a time when universities find themselves nervous at the thought of losing federal funding as the President Donald Trump’s administration threatens cuts to research programs and education.
The bill has not yet been scheduled for a first reading.
