SCRANTON TIMES TIBUNE EDITORIAL: Tax exemptions for nonprofit institutions are among the many matters that the state Legislature must address if it hopes to help Pennsylvania’s struggling cities. Municipal governments bear the service burdens related to an array of nonprofits that provide crucial services for entire regions. The Legislature should figure out how to help those cities carry that burden without hindering the nonprofits’ public-service missions.
Blue Cross health insurers are tax-exempt nonprofits, for example, even though they amass hundreds of millions of dollars in surpluses while raising premiums. And even when nonprofits meet more conventional descriptions, they have substantial impacts on municipal tax bases. Statewide, urban centers like Scranton typically have nonprofits with property values equal to more than 20 percent of total property assessments. Allegheny County Controller Chelsea Wagner, for example, said about 28 percent of the $59 billion in assessed properties there are tax-exempt.
The issue needs detailed examination through public hearings and debate, but the committee has simply passed an amendment for a favored interest. Protection for nonprofits should not be abandoned, but neither should the obvious need for legislative transparency and the duty to help cities find a way to accommodate nonprofits while coping with the service burden they create… (more)
