Each year, Baltimore’s 14 largest nonprofit institutions, places like Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical Center, contribute an annual payment to the city referred to as PILOTs, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes.
Because nonprofit entities are not subject to taxes, these nonprofits make voluntary payments which have, for the last several decades, been negotiated with the city every 10 years.
Last week, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced that the city had negotiated a new PILOT agreement for five years that will gradually increase the annual payments to $12 million a year by the end of the agreement.
But some say the increase is still not enough considering the huge wealth these institutions steward. And questions have been raised by critics who say this new agreement was not reached transparently.
Baltimore City Councilwoman Phylicia Porter Midday to discuss the agreement and what it means for the city. Porter sought to create a PILOT taskforce to study what an agreement could look like. The Mayor signed a deal before the bill creating the task force was put to the council for a vote.
