It’s become an annual ritual: Every summer, the city of Boston releases its latest report on its Payment In Lieu Of Taxes, or PILOT program — in which Boston asks its biggest and wealthiest nonprofits to make voluntary contributions to the city according to the value of property they own.
And every year, many of those nonprofits (some more than others) decline to contribute the amount requested.
In its most recent report, for the 2018 fiscal year, the city reported that it received roughly $34 million in PILOT payments — more than the year before, and the year before that — but only about three-quarters of what the city asked for.
The city’s request is just that — a request: state law exempts nonprofit institutions from paying local property taxes.