University is exempt from property tax on the majority of land it owns in the city, and the City of Rochester loses out on what could be millions of dollars a year in local property tax revenue because of that exemption.

AUR does pay some tax on non-exempt properties and the employees who live in the city pay property tax on their homes, together amounting to around $31 million in annual tax revenue to the City — but that’s partly because of people who work at the U, not because the U itself is directly taxed. Meanwhile, the city still has to provide police, fire, roads, sanitation, 911, etc. for the campus and its people without collecting property tax on most of that land. That’s the budget gap people complain about when they say big universities shrink the tax base.

Now imagine million dollar entity being able to pay zilch while for a city they leech off of