Politics & Government

At What Cost?

The benefits of hosting a college or university are many for a community, but in the case of Quinnipiac University, it comes at a cost -- almost $300,000 a year.

Hamden is a college town -- and that's generally a good thing.

Colleges and universities provide more than just educational opportunities to the host communities -- they provide added consumers who patronize local businesses and add to the vitality of the neighborhood.

And while Hamden has benefited in those ways from being home to Quinnipiac University, those perks have come with a hefty price tag.

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For decades, Quinnipiac University -- or Quinnipiac College, as it was known then, was a small commuter college that attracted mostly home-grown students to the Mount Carmel campus.

But in the past two decades, there has been amazing growth that resulted in thousands more students at the school that soon became a university. There's more programs from which students have to chose, including a law school and soon a medical school.

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But that didn't happen without considerable growing pains, most notably the lack of dorm rooms for all the additional students. Faced with that shortage, university officials decided to buy up single-family homes to rent to students while constructing more dormitories. 

A survey of residential properties the university owns, as listed on the Vision Appraisal website, shows that the school owns approximately 67 that they rent to students, for which the town loses $282,993 in tax revenue yearly.

Roads near the university such as New Road have been all but taken over by Quinnipiac -- the university owns 25 of 37 New Road addresses. And that costs the town big bucks -- almost $100,000 a year for that road alone.

Because of its educational status, the university is exempt from paying property tax, Town Assessor Jim Clyne said. 

"Most of the homes that Quinnipiac owns are for student housing, and they are exempt," Clyne said. In return, the town receives a state subsidy known as PILOT -- Payment in Lieu of Taxes, which usually ends up being about 30 percent of what the town would collect if a private person owned the property, he said.

In the case of New Road, the town would collect about $142,000 a year in property tax if those 25 Quinnipiac homes were privately owned. At 30 percent state reimbursement -- which is paid by state taxpayers -- the town receives about $42,000, leaving a $100,000 yearly deficit.

And that's only one road -- there's many more with homes that Quinnipiac owns and rents to students. Quinnipiac attorney Bernard Pelligrino told the Planning and Zoning Commission this week that 161 students rent rooms in these homes from the university. 

It's an issue close to the heart of former independent mayoral candidate Charles Baltayan, who this week filed an ethics complaint against Clynes over the issue. 

"There is a clear ethical breach when it comes to the taxation of property regarding Quinnipiac University single-owned family houses and there treatment as if they were dormitories on campus for taxation purposes," he said in the complaint. "An on-campus property does not receive the same services as an off-campus single- or multi-family dwelling, yet Quinnipiac University continues to seek and get tax abatement and reimbursement for them...

"No one denies the value to the community a college brings, but it also brings expense," he wrote. "It is one thing to abate on-campus housing where trash and snow removal, street repairs, maintenance and traffic are not at issue, but not to collect full taxes on properties outside the sanctum of the campus is unethical."

If a parent buys a house for their child to live in while attending Quinnipiac, there's no question the parents would pay full property taxes, Baltayan said. 

"Because a property is owned by an entity does not mean that it should receive tax-exempt status if it is not the same class of property," he said.

In all, Quinnipiac owns 67 single- and multi-family homes and condominiums, including several units in a Circular Avenue apartment complex. It also owns numerous houses on Whitney Avenue, Lucien Drive, Kimberly Road and Sherman Avenue.

Mayor Scott Jackson's Chief Administrative Officer Curt Balzano Leng said that for the first time, last year the university began making a $100,000 yearly payment to the town to make up for lost revenue.

The payments were made quarterly, Leng said, with the school paying $25,000 every four months. It's the first time the school has made direct payments to the town, he said, but he wasn't sure if those payments will continue this fiscal year.

"It's anticipated it will continue," he said.

The school also funds the cost of two police officers who are assigned to the area around the campus and has purchased a vehicle for the Police Department.

Scott Harris Jr., who was recently elected to represent the 9th District on the Legislative Council -- the district where Quinnipiac is located -- said it's a tough issue to navigate.

"We straddle a fine line between welcoming Quinnipiac and the benefits it gives the town, and making sure students and administrators maintain a positive presence in the community," he said. 

"It's an interesting and difficult question," he said. "If the town were to w ithdraw the tax benefits, what would that do to students? If Quinnipiac responds by charging more to students, we have to make sure we are not putting low-income students in a dangerous position."


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