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I ax Haven - l fie Yale Herald <br />state was reimbursing the city for almost all of <br />the revenue it lost each year. The PILOT <br />contribution was buttressed then by an <br />additional state fund called the <br />Pequot /Mohegan grant, bringing the total <br />refund to over 90 percent of the value of lost <br />revenue. But over the past 12 years, the state <br />has backed off that commitment precipitously. <br />"Now, between PILOT and the Pequot, it's <br />something like —it's less than 40 percent, it's in <br />the 30s," Smuts, now New Haven's chief <br />administrative officer, said in an interview in <br />his office at City Hall. "That's a huge hole." <br />All this leaves New Haven pinched. The city is <br />deep in the red —over a billion dollars deep, in <br />fact —and some have begun to call on <br />Connecticut to contribute more. "The state is <br />the entity that needs to step up its game," <br />Smuts said. "We're one of the wealthiest <br />states in the country, and we also have some <br />of the poorest cities in the country. There is a <br />moral obligation to do something differently." <br />Part of the problem New Haven faces lies <br />herein. Not only does the city need to worry <br />about lost revenue from Yale and Yale New <br />Haven Hospital, but also from Albertus <br />Magnus University, Southern Connecticut <br />State University, and the well- endowed <br />Hopkins School, a tax exempt independent <br />school whose New Haven campus stretches <br />Page 9 of 18 <br />http: / /yaleherald.com/homepage -lead- image /cover- stories /tax - haven/ 10/23/2014 <br />