The Baltimore City Council is considering whether a citizen task force should weigh in on how much the city’s major nonprofits — like Johns Hopkins University and Lifebridge Health — contribute to the city budget.
As nonprofits, these 14 institutions do not pay property taxes but instead have a PILOT or payment- in- lieu- of- taxes. Combined they pay $6M annually for city services like policing, snow removal, road maintenance and more. That agreement expires and comes up for renegotiation next year.
A 2024 report from the Office of the Comptroller estimated that if taxable, the properties in question would generate over $108M and that in turn, they use about $47M.
“This legislation does not yield higher PILOT agreements,” said Loraine Arikat, a policy analyst with SEIU 1199, during a recent hearing before the Budget and Appropriations committee. “It simply mandates a fair and transparent process when institutions tell you that the higher PILOT agreement would make them cut services and programs.”
Arikat is part of “With Us, For Us”, a coalition demanding the civilian taskforce and that worked with bill sponsor Councilwoman Phylicia Porter (D-10) on the legislation.
That task force would send recommendations to the city as it renegotiates the PILOT agreement in 2026, including a standard formula calculating the exact payment each institution should pay based on total property tax exemption and use of city services.
The initial draft of the bill would have a task force composed of an appointed team of labor leaders, non-profit stakeholders, and Baltimore residents who make below the area median income.
And while the hearing was specifically about the taskforce, residents who believe the so-called “anchor institutions” should pay more — especially given the city’s budget shortfall — came to make that demand.
“Baltimore anchor institutions contribute so much to our city through services and by employing 1000s of people, but they aren't doing enough to support our city given their massive revenue,” said Samantha Williams, who identified herself as a Baltimore-based social worker. “In fact, they own almost a third of city property and only pay point zero 4% of their overall operating expenses under the current PILOT agreement.”
The Finance Department reports that approximately 27% of the city’s property tax base is exempt from taxation, compared to 9.5% across Maryland.
But a conversation about how much to contribute is coming at a time when many of the city’s anchor institutions, many of which are also the city’s largest employers, find themselves already losing federal funds. As several non-profit leaders pointed out during the hearing, they also provide essential services on which residents depend.
“One of the lesser known things that we've done for the last almost 40 years in Baltimore City is also manage the city's child advocacy center,” said Adam Rosenberg, the Executive Director Lifebridge Health’s Center for Hope.
“We help over 1000 children each year who have been victims of this we fulfill the unfunded state mandate for coordinated approaches to child abuse per Maryland family law, 5706, this program is not in the city's budget, folks, it has never been.”
Those are the critical services Rosenberg says Lifebridge pays as part of the PILOT. Lifebridge also helps facilitate the Safe Streets violence intermediation program in East Baltimore and last month, the Trump administration revoked $1.2M of funds the group had been using for violence prevention support.
The committee did not take any voting actions on Tuesday.
