Wednesday randomness

[magid]

Arrr! Avast, me hearty readers, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I finally went to the farmers' market near South Station to get When Pigs Fly bread, including some of the more interesting flavors (and unsliced). Yum! Also, I learned that they may be opening a new storefront in Wellesley sometime this fall, which would be most excellent.

Also, there's some movie filming around downtown Boston.

Welcome to the brand new triplets! *long-distance squeeing*

Query (mostly directed at Jews who attend somewhat orthodox shuls): do you know of any shuls that are replacing their Birnbaums with something else (ie, have spare Birnbaums that might be in decent shape)? If they want to pass them on, I know of a minyan that would be more than happy to use them.

I'm probably the last one on the block to find out about Kiva. It's a very cool model for microlending, letting anyone help towards the small business loans people need. (Talk about Rambam's levels of giving!) Right now, there aren't so many people looking for loans, because they've had lots of publicity recently, which is encouraging.

The city of Cambridge sends out a flier about taxes each year (how much the budget is, where the money comes from and goes, tax rates compared to other local municipalities, stuff about excise taxes, and so on), which I find fascinating reading (along with critiquing their graphs: there's one pair of graphs that could be laid out much better in relation to each other). Included in the random information is a list of the top ten city real estate taxpayers. Top of the list? MIT, which contributes more than 10.5% of the entire tax levy. Harvard (well, the president and fellows of Harvard College, which isn't quite the same thing) is number nine, with just barely over 1% (and the top ten together are almost 28% of all real estate taxes). I know that MIT has a lot of space, but Harvard isn't tiny, even once the acreage in Allston isn't included. So is MIT that much larger, or do they give that much more PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes)? Or is this not a PILOT situation?
(The other eight places listed are all commercial, unsurprisingly.)

Last night I got out on my bike for the first time in mumble months (borrowed bikes on the playa not included). It was a great night for a ride, cool enough that once I took my jacket off, the overheating wasn't bad, and the air was crisp, and it was late enough that I missed most of the rush hour traffic. All good. I wore my headlamp, knowing my headlight didn't have much time left, which was the right choice, and though it was a bit annoying how the headlamp and my helmet interacted, the light was good. (I wish I'd remembered to start recharging the headlight battery, though.) I had the full legal complement of lights, a headlight and a rear light, also reflective things around my ankles, but I started wishing for something on my left arm, to make signaling clearer, such as using EL wire so my arm would be more visible. I could imagine two arrows (different parts of the arm are visible from behind when signaling left and right), plus a red octagon on the inside of my wrist (for slowing/stop), all on some kind of long armband, I suppose. I should get some EL wire to play with!

It wasn't a long ride, less than an hour, not pushing myself for distance. I need to remember that every ride needn't be longer/faster/whateverer; just getting out and moving is what's necessary. Because the walking*, though good, isn't enough, and I'm not managing the occasional weight lifting/yoga/elliptical/etc nearly as frequently as I should.
* To work almost every day, and around greater Camberville unless there's major schleppage involved. I'd hoped to walk 1200 miles this year; I'm almost at 1000 now.

Comments

[coorr.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Harvard doesn't pay property tax or something like that. I cant remember why exactly but I know that the reasons go back quite a ways (like to when the university was founded).

If I can dig anything up I will forward it along.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Schools and some other nonprofits (churches?) I think are exempt from property taxes, but usually when they're as big as the university is, there are negotiated payments instead, to keep the town happy with having the university there despite taking all that land officially off the tax rolls.

Assuming I'm remembering correctly.

[coorr.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember something else going on with Harvard specifically. Maybe its just all the controversy over it that rips through Cambridge every few years. They do own a ridiculous amount of (very valuable) property to pay so little in tax.

[coorr.livejournal.com]

here is something (http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=347328) from 2003 about Harvard and taxes. It seems that Harvard does not pay property taxes. I still cant figure out why exactly or how long that has been the case, but it does pay a yearly PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) and has done so for the last 17 years.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I believe that number does include PILOT but the major difference between Harvard and MIT is that MIT has _lots_ of tech businesses on it's property for which it must pay property taxes. As a notable example look at tech square which is a couple of blocks of high rise office buildings. Most of the large Tech companies in the area rent space and therefore don't pay property taxes. MIT is one of the largest landlords for this sort of field.

[magid.livejournal.com]

So the university renting space to a retail/commercial company requires taxes on the rental space? I didn't realize that. I just assumed that, not surprisingly, MIT is more community minded than Harvard.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

A school is tax exempt, but a business is not. Just like a having a home office does not turn your entire home into a deductable business expense, just (?) having a school does not turn all of your property holdings tax exempt.

[ckd]

II think MIT owns more non-academic real estate that they pay taxes on, things like University Park and Tech Square. (I'm not sure exactly how the ownership breakdown works for those; I think MIT may own the land but not the buildings at this point.) Those payments are not part of any PILOT agreement.

[magid.livejournal.com]

OK, that makes sense (Xuth suggested something like that, but the distinction between owning the land and the buildings seems like a reasonable way to split tax/PILOT status).

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Except that taxes are levied on the land itself based on the value of the land and any improvements (mostly buildings) made on it. So the land holder (MIT) is still responsible for the property taxes regardless of whether the assertion that other entities own the buildings is correct.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

Also, there's some movie filming around downtown Boston.

The Bachelor II is what we heard. It keeps getting into our way all week.

I finally went to the farmers' market near South Station to get When Pigs Fly bread

He is so generous with samples and man, I've blown a couple of paychecks there by now.

I wish I'd known you were heading our way; there's a new storefront in our building we think you'd enjoy (Artists for Humanity) and then that little park thing next to Chinatown just opened and we've been meaning to say "come down and eat lunch at the new park while it's still warm enough."

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the trucks and stuff are all over the place (including some guy grilling lunch out of the back of some huge semi right by the Common).

The samples are like at the store, where you can have a sample of everything they've got. I take advantage of that too much :-).

I made a last-minute, mid-afternoon decision to go over. Wasn't time for lunch, alas, but we should figure out a day that works (hint: after my shortened-by-Jewish-hols will likely be easier).

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I'm don't know how similarly things work here but in Ohio, many (if not most) entities that are exempt from property taxes still must pay the percentage of the property taxes that would go to the school system. But since these properties are exempt they don't have an official valuation so it's often a negotiation (or court case) between the local school system and the exempt entity to determine exactly what they owe.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've never heard about there being a distinction between general property taxes and the part of them going to the school system.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I have my first microloan out to Kiva as of a few months ago... when/if it's repaid, I'll likely begin doing it more often.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

It seems like it's a great way to use technology for person-to-person help.