Three's Company: Can UVA, Charlottesville, and Albemarle County share the wealth?

Together, their annual budgets amount to more than $8 billion a year. So why isn't our community a paradise?

UVA pays no real estate tax on property on or around Central Grounds and its vicinity (on both City and County land), which is valued at more than $2.8 billion.

The Daily Progress recently resurrected the idea that the University of Virginia should begin making regular cash payments to Charlottesville in lieu of real estate taxes it would have to pay if it weren't legally exempt from doing so (reporter Jason Armesto’s parting shot), revisiting a resolution passed by the University of Virginia Student Council almost two years ago calling on UVA to start making an annual $10 million Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to Charlottesville, or half the approximate value (estimated at $20 million by the DP) of its current tax exemption on the 97 properties it owns in the City, to help support public schools and affordable housing initiatives. PILOT programs are nothing new, and dozens of tax-exempt colleges and universities with enormous endowments have begun making voluntary payments to their …