Audit UPMC Tax-Evasion
Start with their parking lots and go from there.
UPMC is exploiting tax loopholes and government incompetence to evade taxes. The Controller’s Office should use its existing statutory authority to make UPMC pay more in taxes. Last year, I conducted an audit demonstrating that UPMC’s Corporate Real Estate Division was not paying taxes on several parking facilities valued at a total of 32 million dollars. If returned to tax rolls, these parcels would bring $760,000 in taxes to Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and Pittsburgh Public Schools each year. I presented my audit to the Pittsburgh City Council this past December.
In 2007, Allegheny County Council passed legislation requiring the review of tax-exempt parcels every three years. The review process did not start until 2013, and as of 2019 when the most recent publicly available update was published, not even a single review had been completed. This means that the County is not compliant with the law.
The parcel review process has apparently been suspended due to a “lack of resources,” even though it is one of the few County programs that directly pays for itself (and then some). While larger lawsuits to challenge UPMC’s tax-exempt status as a whole remain stalled, we don’t need to wait. Allegheny County already has the authority to make UPMC pay additional taxes, one parcel of land at a time.
As Controller, I will expand that review process to make sure UPMC and other wealthy “nonprofits” pay their fair share, especially if they claim to be institutions of “purely public charity”. Every parcel that Allegheny County gets back on the tax rolls means money not only for our County budget, but also for the respective municipality and school district. It’s not just dollars in a County budget, it’s pencils in classrooms and asphalt for potholes. That’s why, if the County refuses to comply with the law and review these parcels, I’ll continue to audit them myself and provide this information to impacted school districts and municipalities. Even without the resources of the Controller’s office, this work needs to happen.