New push for non-profits to help fund town services

As spring begins, officials are again seeing green across well-manicured Acton campuses. 

Organizations including Emerson Health and private schools “own massive land,” incoming Select Board member Dean Banfield said on the campaign trail.

These groups use municipal resources, such as the police and fire departments, but don’t pay taxes thanks to their non-profit status. 

“It would be nice if they made a payment,” Banfield said.

Officials have for decades weighed voluntary payment in lieu of tax (PILOT) agreements and got close to starting negotiations last year. 

The effort stalled, and Town Manager Kerry Lafleur recently previewed a new plan focused on Emerson and the schools. 

Outreach should start in the coming months, and Lafleur said she hopes to have some agreements by spring 2027. 

Early outlook

Lafleur is optimistic about deals with Middlesex School and Acton Academy.

She said she met with Emerson Health leaders and told the Select Board that Emerson is in a different position than the schools.

The hospital can try to raise rates to compensate for PILOT payments, Lafleur said, “but they’re going to get what [the] insurance reimbursement is.”

A 2024 Select Board PILOT policy mentions asking non-profits to pay 25% of what they would have been billed if their property were taxable, the same percentage Boston uses.

A January 2025 PILOT “action plan” estimated that 25% agreements with Acton Academy and Middlesex would net more than $500,000 per year. A 25% deal with Emerson would fetch $128,655. 

Acton already gets PILOT payments for state and federal properties. The municipal light plant and the housing authority have their own payment agreements. 

Middlesex makes regular donations, recently offering $50,000 “in support of the town’s first responders.”

The donations aren’t insignificant, Lafleur said — but they’re well below what Middlesex would pay at 25% of a hypothetical tax bill.

Officials have publicly discussed how Acton Academy uses town facilities, such as the Emerson Field tennis courts and the Acton Free Public Library. 

“I think we probably would make some significant progress” on negotiations with that school, Lafleur said, although she didn’t mention CA by name.

Acton Academy and Middlesex representatives said the schools hadn’t heard from the town about PILOTs earlier this spring. They didn’t answer Acton Bridge questions about factors influencing what they could pay. 

Emerson Health President and CEO Christine Schuster said she had no updates. “We continue to focus on providing quality care to the region,” she said. 

‘A lot slower’ than expected

The town’s then-chief financial officer, Anthony Ansaldi, last year previewed an approach that involved sending an introductory letter to all non-profit landowners. That letter never went out, and leaders paused outreach during what became a tumultuous stretch for the Finance Department.

The town fired Ansaldi in September. New CFO Jennifer Barrett now helms the finance team.

PILOTs could net extra revenue without hitting taxpayers. 

While campaigning, Banfield framed this as “not that hard to do” and sitting Select Board members have pushed staff to start talks.

“It’s probably going to go a lot slower than most people might expect,” Lafleur warned in a Bridge interview. “These different groups that we will be talking with also have a budget process.”

On new PILOT deals, Acton wouldn’t fly solo

Acton isn’t the only Massachusetts community with tax-exempt landowners. It’s also not the first town asking those groups to chip in. 

Town Manager Kerry Lafleur said staff reviewed payment in lieu of tax negotiations in other communities and found they were “seeing the most activity with private schools and/or public universities.” She’s backing off from an earlier catch-all approach for Acton as a result. 

Boston gets PILOT money annually from dozens of non-profits. This totaled more than $100 million in “community benefit” programs and direct cash in the 2025 fiscal year, per a recent city report.

Boston has long based its negotiations on a goal of having non-profits cover 25% of what they would pay on a tax bill. The city was millions short of its requested payments last year, new data shows.

Lafleur mentioned payments from the University of Massachusetts to the city of Lowell. She also mentioned Southborough, where multiple private schools own land. 

Acton’s Finance Department has done additional research on existing PILOT deals in Massachusetts municipalities, Lafleur told The Acton Bridge.

Select Board member Paul Boehm hailed Acton’s PILOT push during a mid-March meeting.

“It’s a key potential revenue source,” he said.

— Dakota Antelman