Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner has notched another win in her efforts to get the city's major nonprofits to begin chipping in for the city services they use.
The city announced this morning that Crouse Hospital will pay $50,000 for four years in a service agreement. In June of last year, Miner struck a deal with Syracuse University where the school will pay $500,000 for five years. That's a drop in the bucket of the estimated $24 million the university would pay if it was fully taxable, according the city's assessment office.
But with 56 percent of its land off the tax rolls and looming financial woes, every dollar likely helps. The two service agreements will generate $2.7 million for Syracuse.
Miner said the following in a statement:
Crouse Hospital understands we cannot succeed as a city without our large non-profit institutions and that our large non-profit institutions cannot succeed without a vital and healthy city. This agreement shows Crouse’s leadership and how important it is to have strong partnerships with our leading employers - our non-profits - to ensure we can move this community forward in challenging times.
The city argues since it dispatches its police and fire departments to the big nonprofits, like Syracuse University and Crouse, and its public works department plows the streets so their employees can get to work, the nonprofits should pay something for those services.
"Crouse Hospital values its partnership with the City of Syracuse as well as the services and support its various departments provide to our institution 365 days a year,” Crouse CEO Paul Kronenberg said in the release.
Miner faces an uphill battle getting the city's other major nonprofits to agree to service agreements. St. Joseph's Hospital has said publicly it is against the agreements. And Upstate Hospital contends that as a part of the State University of New York system, legally it can't enter into such an agreement. The same would likely apply to the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
