Paul Bass Photo
Soon-to-be-outdated signage on Grove Street?
Politics collided with the performing arts as Yale University threatened to evict the New Haven Symphony from its performance hall as part of a fight over a proposed state law.
The proposal in question — state Senate Bill 414 — seeks to clarify how a law passed in 1834 applies today. That 1834 law granted a special tax exemption to Yale and four other then-small Connecticut college and universities, over and above the general tax exemptions enjoyed by not-for-profit educational institutions. This special exemption allows the five schools to avoid paying taxes on buildings that partly house commercial activity, as long as that activity produces less than $6,000 in annual unrelated business income.
Proponents say the bill — which applies only to Yale (technically, only to universities with endowments over $2.5 billion) — would enable New Haven and West Haven to figure out whether they should be taxing, say, Yale’s genome center, where some for-profit contracting is done, or the Temple Street building in New Haven that houses the office of the university’s commercial property arm. The bill does not call for creating new taxes on the university or removing its 182-year-old special tax exemption.
Yale has lobbied hard against the bill since a legislative committee approved it the week before last. The university argues that the bill unconstitutionally singles out Yale, and would open the door to years of lawsuits. (This previous article details the arguments on both sides.)
With a full State Senate debate and vote looming in coming weeks, Yale ratcheted up its campaign against the bill by informing the symphony that, should the bill pass, “it would require the University to prohibit” the organization from holding any more concerts at Woolsey Hall — in order to preserve the hall’s tax-exempt status.
The bill, as currently drafted, does specify as revenues counting toward the $6,000 limit any “fees collected for admission or use of any sports or entertainment facility located on such real estate, except for fees collected for admission or use from faculty, employees or enrolled students, or events in which substantially all of the athletes or performers are faculty or enrolled students.”
The symphony responded by emailing a plea to 13 area state legislators that they “consider the impact of the unintended consequences to New Haven’s performing arts community and the general community before enacting legislation that could limit our and other not-for-profit organization access to Yale facilities.”
“We have been advised by Yale that if this legislation were enacted, it would require the University to prohibit the Symphony’s use of Woolsey Hall to keep it free of taxation,” symphony Executive Director Elaine C. Carroll and board President Robert Santy wrote in the email. “This would greatly impact the Symphony, which has called Woolsey Hall home since the Hall opened in 1902. Yale has supported the Symphony by giving us easy access to the Hall at affordable rates (well below market price). Should we be required to move, there is no comparable facility in New Haven to accommodate our concerts.”
Woolsey.
In an interview, Carroll was asked whether she believes Yale is bluffing, or if it would really boot the symphony if SB 414 passes.
“These issues are so complicated, I don’t have the experience to pass judgement,” she responded. “What I’m confident on is that nobody on any side is looking to disadvantage the arts organizations in town.”
She declined to reveal how much the symphony pays to rent the hall. She said the group would have trouble finding another space that would fit its full-sized orchestra.
Yale’s lead state lobbyist, Richard Jacob, was asked if Yale truly intends to boot the symphony, or if it would merely raise the rental fee to cover a tax bill.
“It would be regrettable, if SB 414 were enacted, if Yale had to prohibit the use of such facilities by community groups to heed the will of the General Assembly’s redefinition of such use as inappropriate for nontaxable space,” Jacob responded in an email message.
Does that mean Yale would prohibit the use, or let the symphony stay and pay more rent?
“The effect of the bill would be to prohibit use,” Jacob responded.
Jacob said in a follow-up call on Wednesday that the tax bill on Woolsey Hall would come in at $760,000 a year, “and that’s just Woolsey Hall.”
New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar called the letter to the symphony — which he said other local arts organizations received, too — “the very definition of a scare tactic.”
“I do not think Yale’s interpretation of the bill is accurate, nor do I believe that the $27 billion institution would be forced to charge higher rents to local non-profits” if SB 414 passes, Lemar said. “But if Yale was really concerned about the bill wording and its potential impact on the community partners that they lease space to, they would reach out to me to discuss ways to address their concerns. Instead, I have heard nothing from Yale, except for when I call Mr. Jacobs or when I read their erroneous public statements.”
Lemar said he’s open to “further clarifying the language” to address the concern raised in the symphony letter. “But I have the sense that I will have to do so without Yale’s help, as I believe they are much more interested in engaging in misleading public relations stunts and blatant scare tactics than they are in finding common ground,” Lemar stated.
State Senate President Martin Looney of New Haven, another sponsor of the bill, said Tuesday that legislators are in fact “working to modify the language to narrow the scope of the bill. The goal of the legislation is to remove the ambiguity that currently exists in state statute. Technology transfer of academic research into commercial application was not within the contemplation of the legislature at the time the statute was modified in 1834. We must evaluate all exemptions in a contemporary context.”
Neither side of the debate has publicly released a list of properties that might be taxed if SB 414 were to pass. Mayor Toni Harp said during her weekly “Mayor Monday” appearance on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program that few if any buildings would be added to the rolls, and that she believes Yale’s tax bill would hardly rise, if at all. She predicted that a reassessment of the 1834 special exemption might in fact lead to raising the $6,000 limit on commercial for-profit revenue an otherwise tax-exempt building could generate. She said she supports the law in order to obtain “clarity” on how to tax properties in town.