The Board of Alders Finance Committee voted Thursday to recommend accepting a roughly $5 million annual boost to Yale University’s voluntary payments to the city for each of the next seven years, while echoing a resounding message: Yale should do more.
Committee alders took that unanimous vote during a Thursday night meeting at City Hall. Later in the night, those same committee alders recommended approval of an amended version of the city’s budget for next fiscal year.
The first item on Thursday’s agenda was whether to accept Yale’s new seven-year deal with the city, which would see the university pay a total of $232 million to New Haven in voluntary payments over seven years. It would also tee up a block of Cedar Street between York Street and Congress Avenue for potential conversion into a pedestrian-only space.
If the full Board of Alders approves the new deal, Yale will contribute to New Haven a total of $29.8 million in Fiscal Year 2026-27 (FY27), $30.6 million in FY28, $31.5 million in FY29, $32.3 million in FY30, $33.2 million in FY31, $33.4 million in FY32, and $33.6 million in FY33. Those dollar amounts do not include what Yale currently pays in property taxes for non-exempt properties; nor they include Yale’s various contributions to other programs, like the Yale Teaching Fellowship and New Haven Promise.
The agreement, building on a soon-to-expire 2021 deal between Yale and the city, would also carry over a provision that requires Yale to pay a declining portion of tax-equivalent payments to the city for properties that the university newly takes off the tax rolls. As lead city negotiator Henry Fernandez pointed out in April, that means $16.8 million in voluntary property tax payments that will head the city’s way over the course of this deal for newly tax-exempt Yale properties like 300 George St.
During Thursday’s committee meeting at City Hall, Westville/Amity/Beverly Hills Alder Richard Furlow said that, while the agreement represents “meaningful progress” and he supports the alders’ approval, “It’s important to speak honestly about this: The issue is whether the level of support fully reflects the scale of municipal responsibility carried by our city and our taxpayers,” he said. “This doesn’t.”
Furlow said he hopes in the future the city and university will pursue a “more responsible” agreement, one that reflects “the financial realities associated with hosting one of the world’s largest tax exempt institutions.”
Fifty-six percent of New Haven’s real estate value is tax exempt. Yale University owns 43 percent of the city’s tax-exempt real estate, valued at around $4.5 billion, while Yale New Haven Hospital owns 17 percent, valued at $1.75 billion. Therefore, Yale owns 60 percent of the tax-exempt real estate in New Haven. The university still remains the second-largest taxpayer in New Haven, behind United Illuminating.
“I am in support of this item simply because there is no other alternative in this matter for our city at this time,” said Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, who is also vice president of UNITE HERE’s Local 35, which represents the university’s service and maintenance workers. “I’ve been a part of the Yale community for about 35 years and to see the wealth grow from $17 billion to $44 billion … I know that they have it in them to be better.”
“Look, I’m not going to deny any money,” said East Rock Alder Anna Festa. Still, she wondered why Yale wasn’t doing more. “We have a high poverty rate in this city, people are deciding whether they should buy food or pay their electric bill.”
“They always ask for something in return. Last time it was High Street,” she added, referring to Yale’s request in the 2021 agreement that the city maintain ownership of High Street while the university converted it to pedestrian-only. “Why should we give something up?” (Yale wound up not following through on converting that city-owned street to a space for pedestrians and cyclists only, citing concerns around federal funding uncertainty under the second Trump administration.)
At a public hearing hosted by the Finance Committee in April, some critics of this deal — including members of the local labor advocacy group New Haven Rising — testified that Yale should redistribute more of its funds to the city. Henry Fernandez, a nonprofit leader and former city official who helped broker the deal between Yale and the city, defended the agreement at that meeting, stating, “Is this the best deal that any city has ever gotten from any university in the history of this country? Yes, it is. Is it enough? No.”
On Thursday, West River Alder and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers said that the discussions between Yale and New Haven need to move away from “give and take.”
“I think we need to start having a different conversation with Yale, and we need to start having real transformational change,” she said. Without that, “we’ll be back at this same table, whether we start negotiating tomorrow with them. We’ll be back here saying the same thing at the end of the agreement, going into the next one.”
“We’re, I guess, happy, lucky to have Yale here, but also Yale should be happy and lucky to be in this community,” Walker-Myers continued.
“I’m reluctantly saying ‘yes’ to this agreement,” she said. “We’re bended on one knee and have no choice to accept it.”
Before alders took their unanimous vote of approval, moving the order to the full board for a final vote, Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand concluded the discussion: “Our grand list has a massive and gaping hole in it,” he said. “I think Yale can do more. I think Yale should do more. Lord knows we need it.”
Discover more from InnerCity News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
