HOLYOKE – Housing communities, service providers, treatment facilities and educational institutions in Holyoke benefit from city services without paying property taxes.

Many of these tax-exempt organizations purchase property and then apply for an exemption, which removes the sites from the tax rolls.

Each time this happens, property tax revenue for the city will decrease, Mayor Joshua A. Garcia said in a statement.

The mayor is now doing something about it. Garcia is advocating for a formal policy to implement a Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program for the city’s tax-exempt properties. The goal is to mitigate property tax increases for others in times of high inflation.

The Holyoke Citizen Advisory Council has contracted with the Collins Center for Public Management. For about $13,000, the firm will conduct a six-month study, meet with city officials, gather facts about Holyoke’s tax-exempt properties, examine existing PILOT programs, and present options to the city for a voluntary PILOT program, which will also include revenue projections.

Municipal services such as public safety, education, sewerage, street lighting, drinking water and road maintenance are financed in whole or in part by property taxes.

Garcia said without sufficient revenue, the city cannot maintain the quality of services that meet growing demands.

“The cost of city services is going up, salaries are going up, fuel is going up, the cost of materials to maintain roads is going up. And what else is going up? Your property taxes,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the challenge is to find a balance while respecting the value of the nonprofit groups’ missions.

All citizens, including vulnerable groups, are entitled to benefits from the state. “Part of my job is to keep taxes low so people can afford to live here,” he said.

PILOT programs exist in Brookline and Boston.

There is a proposal in Boston that would require nonprofits, including many colleges, to pay about 25% of the taxes they would have to pay if they were for-profit businesses. However, if those organizations can demonstrate that they provide clearly defined benefits to the community beyond their basic services, that amount could be reduced to 12.5%.

Faced with the need to maintain city services while homeowners beg for tax relief, the Springfield City Council in June began looking for ways to convince nonprofits to contribute more to payments in lieu of taxes.

In Springfield, the 50 largest nonprofit organizations own real estate with a total value of well over a billion dollars.

Only a dozen of them make voluntary payments. The city has no legal authority to force nonprofits to enter into agreements, Patrick Greenhalgh, chairman of the city’s assessment committee, previously told The Republican.

Holyoke has negotiated with its nonprofits in the past and developed a small number of informal PILOT agreements. Those agreements are poorly documented, Garcia says.

This time, Garcia says, he wants a formal, written policy, complete with talking points and a formula to establish a PILOT payment plan for the city’s tax-exempt properties.