Local Officials’ Support for PILOTs/SILOTs: Nonprofit Engagement, Economic Stress, and Politics

Abstract

Nonprofit property tax exemption has become a major policy issue as the collapse of the housing market, the Great Recession, and property tax caps have threatened local tax collections. Consequently, many local governments have sought to obtain payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) from charities that are formally exempt from property taxes. Using a 2010 survey of local government officials in Indiana, this article examines whether support for PILOT policies is related to officials’ personal involvement with nonprofits, their views on government–nonprofit relationships, the type of position they hold, the level of economic distress in the county, local political conditions, and local nonprofit wealth. The findings support most of these hypotheses but also show that attitudes toward PILOTs appear to be shaped by somewhat different concerns than attitudes toward services in lieu of taxes (SILOTs).

Property Tax Exemptions for Nonprofit Hospitals: What Are They Worth? Do They Earn Them? Evidence From New York City

“…Kenyon and Langley (2010) note that many PILOTs are negotiated relative to the taxes exempt properties would face if not exempt. McGiverin-Bohan et al (2016) provide survey evidence that local lawmakers are more inclined to negotiate PILOTs when an exempt organization has more assets in the jurisdiction. Since assets partly predict property tax liability, by extension, lawmakers become more receptive to negotiating PILOTs as assets increase.…”

How tax incentives slow down positive change in social impact ecosystems and what can we do about it

“…Suboptimal performance. The normalization of managerial irresponsibility (Kummer et al, 2015), accepted inefficiencies (Bromley & Orchard, 2016;McGiverin-Bohan et al, 2016), as well as lax governance and accountability (Alexander et al, 2008), are three problems that can damage tax-exempt social enterprise performance. Such dismay, Metzger (2015) argues, is no longer surprising since there is no expectation of professional managerial behavior in taxexempt social enterprises (Bromley & Orchard, 2016;McGiverin-Bohan et al, 2016), as supervisory failures have become part of the landscape (Jamail, 2014;Metzger, 2015).…”

Within Source Diversification When the Going Gets Tough: Examining Alterations to Human Service Nonprofit Funding by Levels of Government

“…Local governments, on the other hand, not only face cuts from state government funding, but also face local government restrictions and political dynamics. For example, McGiverin-Bohan et al (2016) illustrate how nonprofit engagement in the local community, economic stress, and politics shape public support for taxation policies for local nonprofits. In examining community development corporations, Thomson and Etienne (2017) found these human service nonprofits fared during the Great Recession varied depending on the locality.…”