Paul Bass Photo
Looney: Still on the table.
A proposal to tax the real estate of not-for-profit hospitals like Yale-New Haven might be getting new life at the state Capitol.
State Senate President Martin Looney of New Haven said legislators are discussing a tweak to the original proposal to guarantee that hospitals would ultimately not lose money in the deal.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy originally proposed enabling legislation in February to allow municipalities to levy property taxes on not-for-profit hospitals as part of a broader package of increased urban aid; he said he was promising to find ways to shield cities from the brunt of overall cuts at the time of a $1.7 billion projected deficit in the coming year’s state budget. Each city would make its own decision about whether to pursue the new hospital taxes. Malloy’s proposal counted on increased Medicaid reimbursements from the federal government to return the lost revenue to the hospitals.
At the time, New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said she was disinclined to have the city tax Yale-New Haven property, in part because the plan by Republican leaders in D.C. to cashier the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) convinced her that the state couldn’t count on future increases in Medicaid reimbursements.
Harp revised her position this week after meeting with Looney and learning that legislators might include a guarantee to the proposal — that if federal reimbursements drop, the state will make up the difference.
“If that happens, that takes my objection off the table,” Harp said during her latest appearance on WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday” program. Harp’s administration, trusting in Malloy’s promise of increased urban aid, is counting on $31 million more from the state this year to balance its $554.5 million proposed city budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. So the maneuvering in Hartford over the upcoming state budget, especially when it comes to municipal aid, will determine whether the city budget adds up.
“That would take care of it,” Harp said of a potential hospital property tax.
Harp said her administration calculated last month that it would collect $33 million from real estate taxes on Yale-New Haven in the coming year under the proposal. Then the city completed its twice-a-decade citywide property reassessment. In recent weeks, based on the new numbers, it calculates it would collect $50 million from Yale-New Haven in the coming year.
(Though under another Malloy proposal, to require municipalities to start contributing to teacher pension payments, the city would be on the hook for a new $15 million tab, netting New Haven around $35 million overall, Harp said.)
Without the new proposed guarantee of state back-up money to return to hospitals, Malloy’s idea would not pass, Looney said in an interview. He said he supports the new taxing authority as a way to help cities like New Haven make up for budget challenges. Asked whether the state should simply increase reimbursements to cities under the Payment in Liu of Taxes (PILOT) program instead, Looney noted that PILOT was never designed to match all lost local dollars, so cities would make out better this way.
Looney also said that because the federal government currently has a two-to-one match for state Medicaid spending, the proposal — assuming rules for Medicaid reimbursement don’t change; or the proposed state guarantee makes up the difference— would generate $250 million in new municipal revenues statewide, and reimburse hospitals $38 million more than they’d pay out for property taxes.
Wary of past clashes with Malloy, however, the hospitals still aren’t buying.
The Connecticut Hospital Association remains “strongly opposed” to the property tax, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Hamilton.
“Our hospitals are the bedrock of our society and have strong and unique partnerships with their local communities. This scheme would undermine these partnerships. We need healthcare policies that are sustainable and improve the quality and access to care, not more taxes that are just bad policy. Hospital funding should be used to care for patients, not to solve municipal and state government budget problems.”
Yale-New Haven, too, remains opposed, according to Vice-President Vin Petrini. He said that Yale-New Haven Health System is now the state’s top taxpayer at over $200 million thanks to the six-year-old hospital provider tax. “Back in 2011, the state promised hospitals they would make them whole” for the provider tax, and that never happened, Petrini said. “We would have serious and grave concerns about any additional taxes. Those dollars should be used for care for patients.”
Click on or download the above audio file to hear the full episode of WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday.”
The episode of was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.
Following is a status report on bills of particular interest to New Haven before the state legislature this session:
The 2017 Agenda
| Bill # | Status | Summary | Sponsors |
|---|---|---|---|
| SB11/ HB5539 | Committee Denied | Would legalize, tax recreational use of marijuana. | Candelaria Dillon Lemar Walker Porter et al |
| SB 17 | Committee Approved | Would make certain undocumented immigrant students (DREAMers) eligible for state college financial aid. | Looney |
| HB 5434 | Committee Approved | Would have CT join with other states to elect the President based on popular, rather than Electoral College, vote. | Winfield, Porter Albis Elliott D’Agostino et al. |
| HB 5458, HB 6058 | Committee Approved | Would establish electronic tolls on state highways. | Genga |
| HB 5575/HB 7126 | Passed Senate | Would regulate companies such as Uber and Lyft. | Scanlon |
| HB 5589 | Passed House | Would expand disclosure requirements for contributions to campaign funds. | Dillon Lemar D’Agostino Elliott et al. |
| HB 5591 | Passed House | Would require equal pay for employees doing comparable work. | Dillon Walker Lemar Albis D’Agostino Elliott et al. |
| HB 5703 | Committee Denied | Would have CT enter into an agreement with other states to limit “poaching” of each other’s businesses. | Lemar |
| HJ 13/HJr 95 | Passed House | Would amend the state constitution to permit early voting. | Lemar |
| HJ 16 | In Commitee | Would amend the state constitution to permit absentee voting for all voters. | Lemar |
| SB 1/HB 6212 | Committee Approved | Would require employers to provide paid family and medical leave for their employees. | Looney |
| SB 2 | Committee Approved | Would make the education funding formula more equitable. | Duff |
| SB 8 | Committee Denied | Would allow municipalities to adopt a 0.5% sales tax. | Looney |
| SB 10/HB 5743 | Passed Senate | Would strengthen hate crime laws. | Winfield |
| SB 13/HB 6208/HB 6456 | Committee Approved | Would increase the minimum wage. | Looney Winfield et al. Albis Candelaria D’Agostino Elliott Lemar Paolillo Porter Walker |
| SB 137 | Committee Denied | Would expand birth-to-three and provide universal pre-school, among other things. | Gerratana |
| SJ 5/HJ 1 | Passed House | Would amend the state constitution to create a “lock-box” for transportation funding. | Duff |
| HB 5588 | Committee Denied | Would limit certain bond allocations. | Dillon Lemar Albis Walker Elliott et al. |
| HB 5912HB 6127 | Committee Denied | Would establish a 1‑cent/ounce tax on sugared beverages. | Lemar Elliott et al. |
| HB 6554 | Committee Denied | Would tax carried interest as ordinary income. | Porter Albis Lemar Elliott Winfield Candelaria Dillon D’Agostino et al. |
| HB 5831 | Committee Denied | Would provide bonding for transitional housing for NH female ex- offenders. | Porter Candelaria Lemar Winfield Looney Paolillo |
| SB 631 | Committee Denied | Would provide bonding to make structural improvements to the Shubert Theatre. | Winfield Looney Walker Porter Lemar Candelaria Paolillo |
| HB 6863 | Committee Denied | Would authorize bonds for renovating the Barbell Club as a youth/ community center. | Canelaria Porter Paolillo Lemar Winfield |
| SB 649 | Committee Approved | Would allow local building officials to impose fines for building w/o a permit. | Looney Winfield Walker Candelaria Lemar Porter Paolillo Et al. |
| SB 590/591 | Committee Denied | Would limit police ccoperation w/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (590); establish an immigrant’s bill of rights | Winfield |
| SB 20 | Committee Denied | Would require affordability to be considered in reviewing proposed health insurance rate hikes. | Looney |
| HB 6352 | Committee Approved | Would establish a deposit system for car tires. | Ritter Gresko McCrory |
| HB 6901 | Committee Denied | Would impose a surtax on large employers that pay an average wage less than $15/hour. | Elliott |
| HB 7278 | Passed Senate | Would convey various parcels to New Haven, among other things. | Gov’t Administration and Elections |