Princeton U. Agrees to $24-Million Voluntary Payment to Town

Princeton University said Thursday that it will pay more than $24-million over seven years to help cover the cost of local services in its home town of Princeton, N.J., The Chronicle of Higher Education and Bloomberg report.

The school will make annual contributions totaling $21.7-million over the course of the pact, plus one-time payments totaling $2.6-million to support a variety of town projects.

The deal comes as local governments nationwide increasingly press nonprofit private colleges to step up payments in lieu of taxes as the institutions grow and require more public services. A group of Princeton residents is pursuing a lawsuit challenging the university’s tax exemption, arguing that the school’s substantial income from commercial activities render it more like a business than a nonprofit.