PILOT Redux

Today's PG report on State Sen. Wayne Fontana and his effort once again to generate government revenue based on local land holdings by large Pittsburgh non-profits reminded me of this Pittsblog post (and the associated PG story) about PILOT programs elsewhere. That's "Payment in Lieu of Taxes," and if non-profit land holdings can't be taxed directly, then PILOT programs are good alternatives - and better, generally speaking, than tuition taxes - to pick a non-random example. (PILOT programs aren't problem-free, of course.) Both the current story and the earlier PILOT story were reported by Rich Lord. I suspect that he isn't the only one who noticed the passage of almost three years since the first story was published.