Ivy League Universities Push for Special Tax Cut
The Intercept | Lee Fang
Fang outlines how “Harvard and other elite universities are lobbying Congress for a tax cut on endowment investment returns.” As he reports, “Earlier this year, Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow personally met with lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y…to lobby against the excise tax.”
Providing further details of Bacow’s views, Fang reports that, “In May, Bacow, in conversation with David Rubenstein, the billionaire co-founder of the Carlyle Group and now the chair of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees…the Harvard University chief complained bitterly about the unfairness of the tax. ‘I think this is bad public policy. We’re a charitable institution,’ said Bacow... The tax, he [Bacow] also argued, was designed by Republicans to punish Democratic-leaning institutions.”
According to Fang, Harvard’s pressure campaign may work: “Inside Higher Ed reported on emails from Suzanne Day, an in-house lobbyist at Harvard, encouraging colleagues to press Democratic lawmakers on the issue. The lobbyists had hoped to include a provision in President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better package last year... An initial draft of the bill contained the Harvard-backed provision.”
As reported by Fang, “Last year, Harvard University reported a 33.6 percent return as its endowment swelled to $53.2 billion.” Fang also reports that “a review of lobbying records show that private colleges have mobilized over two dozen lobbyists to pressure policymakers on repealing the tax.”
