Florida governor urges Yale to abandon the campus it's inhabited for 300 years

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/florida-governor-urges-yale-abandon-170230356.html

 

Yeah, that'll happen.

 

Yeah, Yale is not moving. However, the tax status of Ivy League schools and other schools with huge endowments has come into question. The problem is not that they have large endowments; it's that they don't spend them. I'm not sure you can say an organization is for-profit for not spending money, but it is estimated that, if Harvard completely paid for the tuition and fees of all of its students, it would only cost a small percentage of its endowment.

 

This piece, in particular, isn't terribly controversial. When I was in PA my church ran into a situation where the county assessed property tax on everything that wasn't used for an exempt purpose. So the church building wasn't assessed but the parsonage was. There was even debate about them assessing tax on the parking lot but our attorney got them to back off.

I'm not suggesting that they should delve into that level of minutiae. But many of these schools own properties that are not being used for exempt purposes. I know that Cornell, for example, owns a strip mall which they only partially occupy with administrative offices. Syracuse University likewise owns a few mixed use properties which they rent out to non-university entities.

Connecticut would be wise to tread lightly. Not because Yale is likely to relocate to Florida but because Yale is a major employer in the state and has the financial resources to challenge any such initiatives in court. If I had to imagine who, the state of Connecticut or Yale, would run out of money and litigation power first my money would be on the state.

Not to mention, I'd imagine there is a fair concentration of rich and influential Yale alumni in Connecticut who can tip the political scale even further.

And I have a very hard time believing that this is the most effective means to solve all of the woes of the state of Connecticut.