When Julian Hynes was a student of the Amherst Regional Public Schools, squirrels broke into his lunchbox. They’d entered the school building through holes in the walls and roof.
“A ceiling tile fell on my head, because there was a large leak in the roof. My papers would get wet, because the roof dripped and leaked in the middle school,” Hynes told The Shoestring.
He wasn’t the only student to experience something like this. In March, a student at Amherst Regional Middle School faced minor injuries after an object fell from an opening in the building’s ceiling, according to a letter from Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman.
Those experiences stuck with Hynes. Years later, he and 10 other Amherst high schoolers protested the issue at a Town Council meeting. They wanted the town to be able to properly fund the public schools, and they saw the apparent wealth disparity between the town’s public schools and its colleges as both part of the problem and a potential solution. Hynes lobbied town councilors, who ultimately wanted the same thing: voluntary funding from colleges within Amherst that could fill a growing gap in town revenue.
Hynes’ idea wasn’t noveI. It’s known as payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT. Nonprofit property owners like colleges and universities, hospitals, and government agencies are exempt from municipal property taxes. Most PILOT agreements are voluntary for tax-exempt landowners, only becoming obligatory under specific and uncommon conditions. Thus, the responsibility to incentivize property owners into PILOT agreements commonly falls on municipal governments. Without a negotiated financial agreement, municipalities rely on irregular contributions or state reimbursement for revenue in lieu of taxes.
Springfield — home to about $3 billion worth of tax-exempt property in fiscal year 2024, not including city-owned land — recoups only about $300,000 annually from existing PILOT agreements, for example, according to a city audit. That same report found that of the communities with the highest percentage of tax-exempt land in the state, western Massachusetts cities and towns occupy the top six spots: Huntington, Gill, Amherst, Williamstown, Deerfield, and Springfield.
Cities and towns up and down the valley have voiced concern about their situations. Last fall, a Springfield City Council task force called for the hiring of a consultant to help the city collect more from its nonprofits. In Holyoke, Mayor Joshua Garcia proposed a new PILOT policy last year, saying that approximately 16% of properties are tax-exempt, from charities and churches to health centers.
The state government, too, has come under criticism for failing to adequately compensate communities for the land that it owns. In the 29 towns surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir, for example, residents have long expressed outrage over the state’s payments throughout the years — frustration that has boiled over recently as towns face the choice of raising property taxes or cutting municipal services.
PILOT reform has newfound momentum at the state level, with Gov. Maura Healey announcing last month the formation of a commission to advise her on reforms to the state-owned land PILOT formula.
“For too long, the state’s current state owned land PILOT formula has shortchanged rural communities in western and central Massachusetts, despite the enormous contributions these communities make in stewarding the Commonwealth’s forests, farms, and watersheds,” state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, said in the commission’s announcement.
But that wouldn’t change how private institutions operate. In Hampshire County, the Five Colleges would owe tens of millions of dollars to their respective municipalities if not for their tax-exempt status. Yet collectively, they pay less than $3 million annually. Public disputes have arisen as the municipalities face increasing financial difficulties.
It’s been two years since Hynes started advocating for PILOT funding to support Amherst’s public schools, and not much has changed. But with the existing financial agreement between Amherst and the University of Massachusetts set to expire in fiscal year 2027, town officials and residents are considering mounting pressure to get more from the wealthy institutions in their backyards.
Reaching the Boiling Point
In Amherst, 40% of the land is tax-exempt, and nearly half of that is owned by Amherst College, UMass Amherst, and Hampshire College, according to Amherst’s Assessors Office.
According to Jill Brevik, town councilor for District 1, “UMass and Amherst College pay lower than average in PILOT payments, and since so much of the town’s land is owned by the colleges, it’s a pretty big hit on the town budget to not be able to use that land for taxable purposes.”
If its property was taxable, Amherst College would owe approximately $18 million to the town in 2026, according to The Shoestring’s analysis of property records. UMass Amherst, which encompasses 9% of the town’s land mass, would owe roughly $20 million annually, according to Amherst’s assessor’s office.
Brevik said she often hears complaints from her constituents about the colleges’ financial contributions. “People are interested in this, they are paying attention to this, and they are furious about it,” she said.
In 2023, UMass Amherst established a strategic partnership agreement with the town, in which it agreed to donate approximately $5 million over the following five years. This funding supports fire and ambulance services, community health and safety, the town’s economic development, and the education of K-12 students living in university housing, according to the agreement.
Amherst College entered a memorandum of understanding with the town in 2025, providing approximately $775,000 annually over the subsequent three years. This contribution is evenly divided between the town’s public works and infrastructure, fire and ambulance services, and the public schools.
In response to questions about their financial contributions, Amherst College and UMass Amherst referenced the press statements they released when those agreements were initially announced.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman recognizes the value of the existing partnership between Amherst and the colleges, he told The Shoestring. However, as renegotiations approach, Bockelman desires a change.
“Costs have changed, the institution is growing, and the town needs long-term fiscal sustainability. I believe both institutions should be contributing more to the town, and they know I believe that,” Bockelman said.
In Northampton, Smith College would have owed over $6 million in property taxes in 2026 if it were not tax-exempt, according to The Shoestring’s analysis of city data. The college does, however, pay taxes on its commercial and non-institutional properties, making it the largest taxpayer in Northampton.
Smith has an annual agreement with the city to compensate for taxable properties that were demolished when it extended the college’s Clark Science Center. The amount the college pays towards this agreement – $156,000 in 2025 – increases each year as the assessments of potential city revenue go up, according to at-large City Councilor Meg Robbins.
“Northampton maintains many PILOT agreements with nonprofits,” Chief of Staff Alan Wolf said on behalf of Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra. “The city has consistently encouraged Smith to enter into a PILOT agreement and will continue to do so.”
Smith College did not respond to a request for comment.
The colleges have also made one-time contributions. Last year, Smith College donated $500,000 to Northampton’s public schools, while Amherst College funded the replacement of designated town buildings in Amherst. In 2024, UMass Amherst donated $400,000 for a new ambulance.
Some Amherst and Northampton residents believe the colleges’ contributions do not adequately offset the loss of property taxes, especially in the face of underfunding across the municipalities’ various services. In Northampton, Nykole Roche, a city resident and activist who has researched the issue, pointed out that the city lacks a municipal trash pick-up service, and residents have to pay annual fees so their children can ride school buses.
“Lots of things that you should be able to take for granted as a tax-paying resident, we just don’t have here,” she said.
Residents reference Amherst College and Smith College’s endowment funds as evidence that the schools can contribute more financially. Amherst College’s endowment is $3.9 billion, while Smith’s is $2.7 billion.
“Our town budget is struggling immensely,” Brevik said. “UMass and Amherst College have the capacity and potential to help in a really significant way, in a way that is sort of expected and commonplace in other towns like ours, and it’s become this accepted reality that they just don’t.”
Brevik referenced Northeastern University, which pledged approximately $49 million over five years in a PILOT agreement with Boston in 2025, and Williams College, which has voluntarily committed approximately $12 million to Williamstown over the past decade.
There are additional examples in New England as well. In 2023, four private colleges – Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence College, and Johnson & Wales University – entered a 20-year PILOT agreement with the city of Providence, Rhode Island, promising over $20 million annually for a total of nearly $450 million.
Harvard University says it has provided the city of Boston with $33 million in payments over the last decade, and in 2025, the Ivy League school also voluntarily entered a one-year, $6 million PILOT agreement with the city of Cambridge.
Back in Northampton, Roche connected the PILOT issue with what she said is insufficient funding for the city’s public schools, which, after staffing cuts in previous years, received $3 million less than the city’s School Committee requested in the fiscal year 2027 budget. Mayor Sciarra, for her part, has said that the level-services budget represented a 6.8% increase over the previous year and that the city will have to consider a tax-override vote next year for additions to the budget to be sustainable.
Likewise, Amherst’s District 2 Councilor Amber Cano-Martin expressed concern over the lack of funding for the town’s public schools. In February, the Amherst School Committee proposed cutting 10 full-time equivalent positions across the public schools to save costs in the upcoming academic year. In the town’s approved operating budget for fiscal year 2027, Amherst elementary schools were allotted over $300,000 less than the School Committee requested.
According to Hynes, the former Amherst public schools student, underfunding in the schools is visible. “It’s a yearly tradition in Amherst to defund the schools, because we don’t really have the resources,” he said.
Hynes, who graduated from Amherst Regional High School in 2024, said teachers’ and counselors’ positions were cut, various art and special education programs were consolidated or removed, and the school buildings had visible damage when he attended them.
“We’re not asking for restitution. We’re not asking to make it right from the past. All we’re asking is that we do the right thing going forward,” Hynes said. “We’re asking that the next time a roof leaks, we have the funding to repair it.”
Making Headway in South Hadley
South Hadley faces a similar situation with Mount Holyoke College. In March, the Select Board passed a policy that allows the town to request that tax-exempt entities pay annual PILOT payments of at least 25% of their would-be tax assessment.
According to Town Administrator Lisa Wong, Mount Holyoke owns a majority of the tax-exempt property in South Hadley. Mount Holyoke College would owe approximately $2.8 million in property taxes annually were it not exempt, according to the assessor’s office, meaning the town could request about $700,000 annually per the new policy.
Mount Holyoke College did not respond to a request for comment.
South Hadley and Mount Holyoke do not have a formal PILOT agreement, said Town Clerk Sarah Gmeiner. In April, the college announced a $3 million donation to the town of South Hadley, divided into $300,000 annually for the following decade. Half of this is directly allocated to the town’s public schools and student scholarships for South Hadley residents to attend Mount Holyoke.
South Hadley will receive $600,000 in cash to spend at its discretion, according to Wong. The remaining funds will go toward Fire District 2, which services the college campus, and designated programs, like subsidizing South Hadley public schools’ eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C.
“It’s a lot more than they’ve provided historically. It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Wong said.
Going forward, South Hadley hopes to establish a more formal agreement with Mount Holyoke that defines expectations between both parties, according to Wong. However, she is unsure whether PILOTs would accomplish that.
“PILOT programs are voluntary, and it’s unlikely that many would be a major solution to the various budget problems,” Wong said.
South Hadley’s municipal government anticipates a budget deficit of $3.5 million in the 2027 fiscal year, which the town’s Budget Task Force wrote in a February report “is not attributable to a single major issue,” citing the town’s aging population, limited commercial development, and significant tax-exempt holdings.
While Wong recognizes the value of contributions from Mount Holyoke, she doesn’t think it can singularly solve the town’s financial issues. “Even if we were able to tax them at 100%, it’s still just over $2 million, which is a fraction of what our deficit is,” Wong said.
While the town will continue to advocate for a PILOT program with Mount Holyoke, Wong said she’s more focused on lowering healthcare costs and advocating for more state aid.
Colleges Generate Economic Activity
Hampshire College recently announced its impending closure following the fall 2026 semester. The college did not have an existing PILOT agreement with Amherst, according to Brevik.
“The biggest impact will be on the town’s local economy and businesses without the Hampshire students and families coming to Amherst,” Brevik said.
The Five Colleges attract thousands of people to western Mass. They each introduce millions of dollars into the municipal economies, and they are among the municipalities’ largest employers. Amherst College’s memorandum of understanding says it annually generates approximately $484 million in economic activity, and their students spend over $1.5 million in the area.
However, this influx of residents has trade offs. Now a student at UMass Amherst, Hynes realized how extensively UMass students rely on town services. Roads and sidewalks are plowed and paved by the town, firefighters respond to alarms in dormitories, and police or EMS are out at night responding to calls from students, especially on the weekends, he said.
“We just have to reach a point where [UMass] recognizes that those services need to be respected, and are not free for the taxpayers of Amherst … We want those services for students too, but in order for that to happen, the university has to fund them,” Hynes said.
In its financial agreement, Amherst College stated that its annual payment of $250,000 to Amherst’s fire and ambulance services prohibits the town from charging the college fees for the services it provides to the campus.
The Way Forward
Local officials and residents believe a necessary step to successfully negotiate PILOT payments is expanding the conversation to include more community members. According to Roche and Cano-Martin, previous negotiations in Northampton and Amherst have occurred exclusively between the colleges and mayors or town managers.
Bockelman told The Shoestring that negotiations have historically worked better when residents share their concerns directly with town councilors or himself, who then determine what is realistically negotiable. Bockelman seeks guidance from Amherst’s elected officials during negotiations, he said.
“Sharing community concerns with me and the Town Council can strengthen the process if it’s focused on setting priorities and evaluating outcomes, rather than having a large group participating in the bargaining itself,” Bockelman said.
Cano-Martin emphasized the need for the Amherst community to come together and determine their specific requests from the schools. “Concerted community involvement is going to be necessary,” she said.
Roche went a step further, recommending the assembly of a formal community board in Northampton that could determine how much tax-exempt entities use in city resources, and then demand the funds that they’re not adequately reimbursing.
From there, pressure should be escalated, she said.