Brookline VOL 2, NO 3
BROOKLINE’S VOICE
Feb. 7 - Feb. 21, 2017
Photo | Josh Resnek The very lovely Cindy is shown inside Brookline Grown, the brainchild of Bobby Zukar. The local food store grows its own greens at a hydroponic farm and is located conveniently at 14 Pleasant Street in Coolidge Corner. Check it out.
$78.3 Million Dexter Southfield private school pays no property taxes By Alexander Culafi
The Voice Today, the Dexter Southfield School in Brookline is worth $78,308,600. It’s a private school with an endowment fund of $30,000,000 as of 2015. During the 20162017 school year, it cost a child more than $40,000 to go there. And yet, because it’s a nonprofit organization, its town real estate tax payment was $0. Brookline resident Bob Feldman pointed this out to us with detailed and factual information he put together about the Dexter Southfield School, much of which we have used in this piece, which is not so much a complaint about the school, which is first class in every way. But rather, Feldman gets us to ask ourselves whether or not nonprofits with huge real estate holdings, tremendous “profits” and bulging endowments should get away free in lieu of tax payments to the town. I mean, I think we can all agree that some nonprofits deserve a leg up, but this school is the kind of place that makes you wonder whether all nonprofits should be treated equally when it comes to property taxes. If the story were only as small as a private school not paying property taxes, we certainly wouldn’t run it. However, Feldman alerted us to some facts that made us pick
Should it? up the phone and make some calls. Get this: “The tax-exempt Dexter Southfield private school in Brookline claims to be “non-profit.” But according to its Form 990 financial filing for 20142015 between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015, Dexter Southfield’s total revenue of $36,077,974 exceeded the school’s total expenses of $32,783,379 by $3,294,595; and the value of the school’s total net assets increased from $24.5 to $24.8 million,” he discovered. “Yet the taxexempt Dexter Southfield private school paid zero dollars in U.S. federal income tax during the same period (although it has also apparently benefited from millions of dollars in Massachusetts Development Financing Agency-issued tax-exempt bonds financing in 21st-century).” I made three calls as soon as I read this — the same three you would make. I made calls to the Brookline Assessor’s Department, the Office of Treasurer and Collector, and the Brookline Town Administrator. The latter two did not return our messages, though I can’t blame Administrator Mel Kleckner since he just got picked up as
Continued on page 3
Sanctuary city issue remains unchanged By Alexander Culafi
The Voice The sanctuary city issue is coming back to Brookline. The town is in the midst of crafting its own sanctuary-like policy that will be introduced formally soon, Selectman Neil Wishinsky told me. It sounds like it will be closer to Newton Mayor Setti Warren’s proposed ordinance, which would essentially be to say Brookline is a sanctuary town without actually being one. Wishinsky was circumspect about the issue except to say the real play is going on in neighboring Newto,n where on Wednesday evening at city hall, push is expected to come to shove and Newton will go one way or the other. Since they first started discussing the situation, it has gotten severely murkier. President Trump signed an executive order on January 25 that would stop federal grants from going to “sanctuary cities,” municipalities that do not cooperate with immigration authorities. That includes towns, in case you’re wondering as a Brookline resident. Should Newton choose to adopt a sanctuary city policy and protect undocumented individuals from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they stand to lose millions of dollars. Newton received approximately $12 million in fiscal 2016.
The factions are mobilizing. The way I see it, there are three main groups in the sanctuary city debate. Mayor Warren, alongside City Council President (and mayoral candidate) Scott Lennon, and Police Chief David MacDonald, wish to implement many sanctuary city-like policies without going into full-on sanctuary city territory or using a label like sanctuary city. Mayor Warren’s ordinance, initially presented two months ago, says, “Newton is a welcoming and inclusive city for all.” It adds, “Immigration status shall have no bearing on a person’s treatment by officials and employees of the city. There is no expectation that officials and employees of the city will report persons to federal immigration authorities based on immigration status.” Unfortunately, neither Mayor Warren nor Councilor Lennon returned our requests for comment. Then there’s the “Welcoming City Ordinance,” proposed by several members of the City Council and backed by organizations like the Newton Democratic City Committee, the ACLU, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee
Continued on page 4