Yale University, New Haven Agree on Increased Financial Support

Yale University has announced it will write bigger checks to the city of New Haven.

City and school officials unveiled a plan Wednesday that increases Yale’s annual voluntary payments from $13 million to $23 million.

“The greatest part of the agreement today for me is that those residents finally, finally have an opportunity to see that Yale actually heard what they were saying,” said Tyisha Walker-Myers, president of the New Haven Board of Alders.

After years of calls for Yale University to contribute more financially to the city, and after 20 months of a pandemic that tightened the city’s budget almost to a breaking point, there’s help on the way.

“I am just deeply grateful that today we can be together to honor and deepen Yale’s strong enduring relationship with the city of New Haven,” said Yale University president Peter Salovey

Over the next five years, Yale University will pay the city between $23 and $24 million, and $16 million in year six, the final year of the deal.

“This equates to over $135 million in our total voluntary payments to support for example our libraries, the education of our children, and many vital city services,” said Salovey.

The increased payments are the first of four parts to the agreement. Over the next six years, Yale will pay property taxes on newly purchased, tax-exempt city property. They’ve agreed to pay those taxes on a decreasing scale for ten years.

In January, NBC Connecticut Investigates reported on the amount of tax exempt property Yale University owns in the city of New Haven. It's valued at $3.5 billion.

Yale has also agreed to put up $5 million for a new Center for Inclusive Growth that will develop ways to grow the city that benefits all New Haven residents.

Finally, the university and the city have agreed to close High Street between Elm and Chapel Streets to make it a pedestrian only public space. Yale will design and fund the renovation.

“Today is a historic day. We worked hard. We worked hard at this,” said New Haven Alder Ron Hurt. He worked with New Haven Rising to knock on doors of city residents to gauge how they felt about the issue.

“A lot of our locals, 34, 35, New Haven Rising, and other forces in our community banded together to make sure that yale does their fair share to the city,” Hurt said.

“As a homeowner in New Haven, I know the financial burden of subsidizing Yale University,” said Elia Vollano, Local 34 Recording Secretary “Solidarity with the New Haven community is a founding principle of our union, and I’m glad our movement has pushed Yale to contribute more to our city.”

The changes come as a restructured PILOT program takes shape across the state. The tiered reimbursement system created by state senator Martin Looney provides more state funds to municipalities with a greater loss from tax exempt properties. New Haven will get about $40 million under the new system this year.

“When you add up the additional PILOT payments and additional payments from Yale that equals about $60 million dollars. So this helps stabilize our finances,” Elicker said. “Both of those payments will come in this fiscal year and we can account for them in this fiscal year.”