For fiscal year 2013, Harvard University had an operating revenue amount of a staggering $4.2 billion dollars to which, to the best of my knowledge, they paid no property taxes for their campus located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, because they are a non-profit Higher Educational Institution. Yet, it goes without saying that the property that Harvard rests upon is worth millions upon millions of dollars, so while Harvard gets a free ride, the surrounding areas of Cambridge, have to pay more than their fair share of property taxes for the privilege of living or doing business in the greater Cambridge area. It would be one thing, if Harvard or other non-profit Colleges did not avail themselves of any of the benefits provided by the paying of property taxes, but instead we can state for a certainty that Harvard does indeed utilize the typical municipal services that other businesses and property owners have to pay money for with their property taxes.
The foregoing does not mean that Harvard or other non-profit colleges are the "bad guys", it is merely meant to point out that property taxes as currently structured are inherently unfair to those that are compelled to pay them and the structure of who should or shouldn't and how much they should or shouldn't pay in property taxes should definitely be reviewed. It is one thing to say that certain non-profits should not pay anything in property taxes because of the nature of the services that they provide to the community, or perhaps due to the small size of the institution, or perhaps their small endowment, or perhaps their lack of money because money is not their purpose; as opposed to institutions, such as Harvard, that have massive endowments, massive amounts of capital, and massive budgets, that easily could conceivably pay some amount of monies in property taxes.
Another point to be made when it comes to property taxes is that there isn't any real good reason, why any non-profit college, should get an endless pass in not paying property taxes, forever. Further to this point, while not exactly ideal, there isn't any good reason why non-profits shouldn't, at a minimum, pay some sort of property tax, even if such a tax is at a lower rate than the surrounding homes and businesses pay at. At least, having done so, that college, can state, that they too are contributing to the infrastructure that benefits them and helps to bring more fairness to all, across the board.
While it is a truism, that nobody really wants to pay taxes, there is also an assumption, when it comes to paying taxes, that all are paying their fair share. This simply is not the case in regards to non-profit colleges and their lack of paying property taxes, as if they should be treated perpetually as a special non-paying property tax class within the community. While in a general sense, most non-profit colleges are seen to be a "good neighbor", they can be even a better neighbor by contributing their fair share to the community in property taxes, as the community as a whole, deserves that consideration.