Homeowners in University Towns Are Sick of Universities Paying No Taxes.Princeton's neighbors: Forget freebies, we want cash

MSN reports:

Free lectures, admission to athletic games and concerts, even shuttles to Trader Joe’s are some of the perks that neighbors of Princeton University get from New Jersey’s only Ivy League school.

A growing number of residents, though, resent the gestures. Riding a national wave of discontent with nonprofit institutions, they’re suing to challenge the tax-exempt status of Princeton, whose $22.7 billion endowment makes it the fourth-richest U.S. university. The outcome could cut homeowners’ annual property taxes, averaging $17,699, by a third. It also could end the freebies that make Princeton a cushy oasis while other New Jersey towns, burdened by high public-worker costs and flat state aid, struggle to maintain basic services.


“They almost operate like a hedge fund that conducts classes,” Leighton Newlin, a 64-year-old plaintiff, said of the university in the town where he was born. A director of a prisoner re-entry program, Newlin has seen his tax bill more than double to $10,000 since a 2010 revaluation. “They have some of the best real estate in all of Princeton. The fact is, those buildings do not pay their fair share of taxes.”

In recent weeks, about two dozen Princeton homeowners joined a five-year-old lawsuit challenging the university’s property-tax exemption for several years. In papers filed in New Jersey tax court, they argue that the school from 2005 to 2012 gained $524 million in licensing income, mostly from a patent that led to the creation of Alimta, a cancer drug manufactured by Eli Lilly. It also uses some buildings for commercial purposes.

Isn't it time for universities to start paying their "fair share " of taxes?