Correction Appended

If you're one of those "glass half-full" types you'd look at the $1,356,357 the city received in payments in lieu of taxes on tax-exempt properties in 2007 and notice it represents a hefty increase over the $853,884 received in 2006.

If your glass is half-empty, though, you'd deduct the $1.2 million given by Lancaster General Hospital and realize everyone else combined chipped in $156,357.69.

Nearly 25 percent of city properties are owned by not-for-profit organizations such as churches, social service organizations and government. City business administrator Patrick Hopkins said there are about 175 owners who hold more than 600 untaxed parcels.

Those properties are assessed at $535,121,400 and would provide $4,719,770 to the city if they weren't tax-exempt.

That's no small amount for a city that ran a real deficit of $1 million (down from the budgeted $3.5 million deficit) in 2007 and is projecting a $2.5 million shortfall in its 2008 budget.

Prior to 2007, Mayor Rick Gray asked the city's nonprofits to consider paying 25 percent of their tax bills. When Gray contacted them in 2007, he upped the request to 33 percent.

Payments the city received in 2007 represent 28.74 percent of the total tax income the city would receive if the properties were not exempt.

But spin out Lancaster General Hospital's contribution, and that figure drops to 3.81 percent.

Gray said his decision to increase his "ask" to 33 percent came from the Management Partners consulting firm study to increase city government efficiency.

When the 2008 budget was submitted to city council, Gray said his goal for the year was to raise $1.5 million in PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes).

The study also recommended, Gray said, "that we focus on the major nonprofits" that have a greater potential to provide payments.

To that end, he said, "LGH has gone above and beyond" what has been asked.

He also noted that Franklin & Marshall College "has really stepped forward" by pledging to provide a $116,545 payment in 2008, on top of the $44,655 it will spend to maintain Buchanan Park. Added together, Gray said, that amount equals the 33 percent figure he is seeking.

"We've been moving in the right direction," he concluded.

Like other nonprofits, F&M also owns property that is not tax-exempt. The college pays $102,000 in taxes on that property.

Offering another example of taxable property owned by nonprofit organizations, Hopkins said many church parsonages are not tax-exempt and provide revenue.

Gray said others who take advantage of city services (most notably police and fire) but don't provide payments "say they don't have the money," he explained. "It's unfortunate, because all of them could give something."

He said he hoped those who did not give payments would "at least talk to their legislators and urge them to support" House Bill 2018.

That measure would redirect an estimated $240 million from the 18 percent "Johnstown flood tax" on liquor to a fund that would reimburse municipalities that contain more than 17 percent tax-exempt properties.

"It would mean $3 million a year for the city," Gray said. "That would be a huge help in alleviating some of our financial problems."

The School District of Lancaster owns the city's largest amount of tax-exempt property, which is assessed at $94,115,600. Lancaster County government is second, with exempt property assessed at $92,880,700.

Gray said he "proposed that the county, as a good faith measure, pay taxes on all of the municipal facilities it owns throughout Lancaster County."

In terms of payments, the Lancaster County Redevelopment Authority provided the third-largest PILOT ($20,918.43) for the Clipper Magazine Stadium it owns.

Randy Patterson, the city's director of economic development and neighborhood revitalization served as the County Redevelopment Authority director when the stadium was built. He explained the payment to the city is the result of a pledge made by the authority to provide payments equal to the taxes paid on the parcels of land purchased to build the stadium.

One nonprofit that stepped up to provide the 33 percent requested by Gray is the Susquehanna Valley Association for the Blind, which paid $7,809 for its property in the 200 block of North Queen Street.

Chief executive officer Dennis Steiner said, "We have a good relationship with the city and, whenever possible, we need to help the city.

"Our board of directors has always been committed to Lancaster," he said. "We're well-respected in the community and we stayed in the downtown to be a part of its revitalization."

He added, "In the nonprofit world, some years are better than others, and in the better years this (payment to the city) is what we believe you need to do.

"This way, you grow and succeed together. That's how a city is successful."

As part of a June 22 report, six Lancaster not-for-profit organizations were omitted from a list of church, government and social-service agencies that gave payments in lieu of taxes to Lancaster last year. City officials have updated the list with these not-for-profits and their 2007 contributions: Ross Street United Methodist Church, $525; Christ United Methodist Church, $550; Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, $526.50; In the Light Ministries, $500; Lancaster Metaphysical Chapel, $389.43; and St. Peter United Church of Christ, $250.