A letter to the editor today called on UPMC to “pay more to City coffers“. Presumably, since the letter refers to an op-ed about Pittsburgh’s efforts to get payment in lieu of taxes from large non-profits, the coffers in question are the property of the City of Pittsburgh.
The letter writer notes that “Studies by my organization and others have found that UPMC’s tax exemptions total more than $200 million per year”. Does that mean the value of UPMC’s exemptions in the City’s borders total $200 million? If so, at the City’s current millage rate (8.06) if that value suddenly became taxable and nothing else changed the levy would raise $1.6 million, about 1% of the amount the City expects to collect this year ($134 million) in property taxes.
It certainly can’t mean that the City would reap $200 million in additional taxes if everything that is exempt and owned by UPMC would become taxable. In order to raise $200 million at the City’s millage rate it would take around $24 billion in property value (there was $12 billion in total exempt value in the City based on the 2016 county certification of values). And it would mean that UPMC itself owns more taxable value in the City than all other taxable owners combined.
A 2014 report by the Auditor General’s office stated that the “total assessed value of all property” owned by UPMC countywide was $2.1 billion. By applying County, municipal, and school district taxes to that amount, as the Auditor General’s office did, that exempt amount would raise $47 million countywide.
Note too that a previous writer of an opinion piece used the Auditor General’s report but confused tax-exempt and non-profit health providers, resulting in a significantly larger estimate of what would be collected than what the actual amount would really be.
If the letter writer’s $200 million in exemptions is based on that, then $200 million of UPMC’s property is in the City’s borders, which does not sound right given the large presence of hospitals in the City.
