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Somerville pilot task force recommends shorter, transparent PILOT agreements and community benefits
Summary
A task force convened under the city's 2021 pilot ordinance recommended five-year agreements, clearer benefits targeted to Somerville residents, contract labor standards and a separate fund and website for transparency to guide negotiations with large tax-exempt institutions.
The Somerville Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) pilot task force presented recommendations to the City Council on May 20 aimed at making agreements with large tax-exempt property owners more transparent and beneficial to Somerville residents.
Why it matters: Several large institutions in Somerville own substantial tax-exempt property; the task force sought ways to better align institutional contributions with community needs, improve transparency and ensure agreements provide direct benefits to residents.
What the task force proposed
- Agreement structure and term: the task force recommended shorter agreements (five-year terms rather than the multi-decade deals used in the past) and a standard negotiating committee with actual bargaining authority rather than an advisory-only role.
- Focus on community benefits: the group proposed that negotiated benefits be meaningful and broadly available to Somerville residents rather than narrowly targeted campus perks. Examples discussed included free bus passes, tutoring and workforce training, medical services for uninsured residents, and energy bill credits created by institutional solar projects.
- Labor and procurement provisions: the task force recommended encouraging, and where practicable requiring, project labor agreements (PLAs) and other hiring/training commitments to boost local job opportunities; they noted existing project PLA language in earlier Assembly Square agreements as precedent.
- Governance and transparency: the task force recommended a publicly accessible website listing PILOT payers, payments and the community benefits requested and obtained, plus a clear negotiating timeline and a standing negotiating committee that includes community representatives.
What task force members told the council
Mary Ann Wallace, chair of the task force, said the group met for 18 months and tried to incorporate input from residents, non-profits and city departments. She said the task force sought to avoid agreements that simply conferred institutional benefit with limited resident value, and to create a structure for future negotiations that residents could monitor.
Emily Ackerman (school committee), Catherine McClain (resident member) and other members described sample benefit categories and stressed the need for clearer accounting of what institutions deliver in exchange for tax advantages.
Next steps
Councilor Klingen thanked the task force and said next steps lie with the mayor's office to implement a negotiating framework. Task force members said the recommendations are advisory and that the city must still persuade institutions to negotiate. The council applauded the report and asked the administration to assemble a negotiating team and publish a transparency website.
