COLLEGE PROPERTY TAXATION

A bill is now before the Massachusetts State Legislature to prevent educational institutions of the state from obtaining exemption from taxation on any further real estate which they acquire. This bill was introduced on account of the complaint made by the city of Cambridge affirming that the exemption of the property of Harvard University from taxation is a burden upon the city finances.

In connection with this bill W. D. Trefry, Tax Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, has filed with the State Legislature a special report on the exemption from taxation of the property of educational and public institutions and the effect which this exemption has upon the finances of the cities and towns in which such institutions are. The report is an exhaustive treatise on a situation which has caused much discussion in Massachusetts in recent years.

The Commissioner finds that the question in regard to the exemption of the property of educational institutions is much more difficult of solution. There are in the state thirteen cities and towns in which the percentage of land owned by educational institutions equals or exceeds three percent. These places present a variety of tax rates, ranging from $10 a thousand up as high as $22.50. They present, also, a variety of percentages of indebtedness ranging from zero in the case of Wilbraham to .076 in the case of Cambridge.

The report concludes that in no place (with the possible exception of Cambridge) is there indication that the presence of the educational institution makes any additional burden to the municipal corporation which is not at least set off by the benefits derived. The case of Cambridge is the most complicated of all. Factors entering into this question which do not appear in the case of any other municipality are the small size and the thickly settled condition of Cambridge. Cambridge has about 4200 taxed acres, while Williamstown has nearly 25,000, Amherst 15,000, South Hadley 10,000, and Northampton 19,000.

The report analyzes the financial condition of Cambridge, and although it does not recommend any legislation, it goes so far as to say that a college can not go on taking acres of land from the tax list without placing a burden upon the municipality; that the places in which such burden will be first apparent are those of small area which are thickly settled, and that there are beginning to be indications that the point has been very nearly reached where it may be confidently said that Cambridge is burdened by the exemption of the property of Harvard University and Radcliffe College to a degree which is not offset by any benefits they confer to the municipal corporation.

Commissioner Trefry denied all newspaper reports about his proposal to tax property now owned by colleges in the state and said very positively that he had never advocated any such measure.