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1'ax haven - the Yale Herald <br />for more than 100 acres. Moreover, large <br />portions of East Rock and West Rock Parks sit <br />within the city limits, swallowing up hundreds <br />of acres of land that might otherwise generate <br />tax revenue for the city. <br />Faced with a similar situation, public officials in <br />Boston began a public relations campaign in <br />2011 to convince the city's nonprofits to begin <br />to make voluntary financial contributions to the <br />municipality in which they sit. Not only is <br />Boston the home to 29 tax - exempt nonprofit <br />universities, but the city is also the capital of <br />Massachusetts, which means it must house a <br />host of nontaxable government buildings. The <br />upshot is that more than half of the city's <br />property is off the tax rolls, according to <br />Ronald W. Rakow, the city's commissioner of <br />assessing, in comments made to the New <br />York Times. <br />In response to this issue, Mayor Thomas <br />Menino convened a task force to examine the <br />issue of nonprofit taxation, and the committee <br />recommended that the city ask wealthy <br />nonprofit organizations— organizations whose <br />property was worth more than $15 million —to <br />contribute 25 percent of what they would <br />otherwise pay in property taxes to the city if <br />they were not tax - exempt. While many Boston <br />officials have been thoroughly disappointed <br />by the outcome of their campaign, it did <br />Page 10 of 18 <br />http: / /yaleherald.com/homepage -lead- image /cover - stories /tax - haven/ 10/23/2014 <br />