ITHACA, N.Y. — The Ithaca Teachers Association (ITA) held a rally on the Ithaca Commons Wednesday evening calling on Cornell University to increase its contribution to the Ithaca City School District (ICSD).
Despite chilly weather, about 80 people gathered on the Ithaca Commons Wednesday evening chanting slogans and waving signs. Between speeches, one teacher gave “pop quizzes” on topics such as compensation of various Cornell executives and how Cornell’s contribution to ICSD compares to that of other universities.
The school district derives about 75% of its yearly operating costs from local property taxes. The university has significant real estate holdings within the district, but largely does not pay property or school taxes because it, like most institutions of higher education, is tax-exempt.
Advocates said Cornell’s tax-exempt status places a uniquely large burden on homeowners and other taxpayers.
The rally comes as district leaders begin the months-long process of formulating the budget for the 2025-2026 school year. Last May, voter outcry against ICSD’s initial proposed tax rate resulted in a pared-down budget including the elimination of positions and programs as well as increased class sizes.
ICSD receives $650,000 a year from Cornell as a voluntary “payment in lieu of taxes.” The sum is a recent increase from years past, when the university contributed $500,000 yearly. The agreement was hammered out last year and is good until 2031, according to university leadership.
In similar agreements, the university contributes $4 million annually to the City of Ithaca and $425,000 annually to the Town of Ithaca. The agreement with the city was the result of a hard-fought negotiation that took months to resolve and drew crowds to Common Council meetings demanding more money from the university.
Ithaca Teachers Association secretary Aurora Rojer said the campaign is pushing for Cornell’s contribution to the district to be more on par with what the City of Ithaca receives, in part because school taxes make up the largest portion of a typical property tax bill in the district.
“The city gets $4 million a year now, thanks, I think, in large part, to the organizing efforts from the community last year,” Rojer said. “And if [ICSD] got $4 million a year, that would make a huge difference in our budget. If Cornell were to pay taxes, they would pay more to the school district than they would to the city.”
Rojer said the ITA’s target is $10 million, but they are ready to negotiate with university officials.
“[Former Cornell President] Martha Pollack sat down with [ICSD Superintendent] Luvelle Brown last year and increased the contribution from $500K to $650K with just what I thought was a pretty mild amount of pressure,” Rojer said.
She said she is hopeful that with more community pressure, the district will have more leverage to negotiate a more significant increase to the university’s contribution.
The rally included speeches from middle and high school students within the district, Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo, Cornell student leaders and school board member Jill Tripp, among others.
Earlier this year, Tripp introduced a resolution to the ICSD board of education to direct ICSD’s superintendent to renegotiate Cornell’s contribution to the district to increase from $650,000 to $10 million.
That resolution did not pass, but it did prompt the formation of a new school board committee tasked with exploring potential new revenue streams for the district. It has met three times so far.
While opportunities to serve on the committee are limited, Tripp said community members are welcome to attend its meetings. She is also in the process of implementing a system to allow the community to submit ideas for the committee to explore, she said.
The committee meets every other Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in the ICSD district board room. It will next meet on Oct. 24.
Cornell’s Vice President for University Relations Joel M. Malina said in a statement the district’s ability to thrive is “vitally important to Cornell University.”
Though the university largely does not owe property taxes on the vast majority of its holdings, some properties do not fall under the university’s broader tax-exempt status because they are not used for academic purposes. School tax payments on those properties, Malina wrote, totaled “more than $2.1 million” annually.
“Cornell’s voluntary contribution to ICSD is one component of Cornell’s financial expenditures – totaling more than $30 million per year – that benefit the City of Ithaca and surrounding communities,” Malina wrote.
Malina also pointed to other, non-monetary benefits the university provides to the district, such as educational opportunities for ICSD students and access to chilled water from a Cornell-owned plant.
ITA President Kathryn Cernera said her union is also working to lobby for changes to the formula New York State uses to determine the amount of aid each school district receives.
Cernera said she would like the state to consider legislation to exempt the school tax burden from any tax breaks offered to developers, such as a recently approved $85 million tax break for the massive SouthWorks development planned for Ithaca’s South Hill.
Cernera also said she hopes the rally and other public facing advocacy will help a broader swath of the community understand how school funding works.
“We are having so many conversations this year that are, ‘how do we make sure that people really understand how our schools are funded and understand how the complexity of [state] aid works?’” Cernera said. “Because […] well, nobody wants to be where we were last May.”
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