Harvard’s Voluntary Payments Spur Providence to Press Brown

Brown University, the Ivy League school whose endowment grew to $2.5 billion last year, may boost voluntary tax payments to Providence, Rhode Island, after the city said it was nearing bankruptcy.

Governor Lincoln Chafee last week intervened to restart talks over the school’s so-called payments in lieu of taxes after Mayor Angel Taveras, 41, said the city was about to run out of cash. While Brown is tax exempt, it has been paying more than $1 million a year since 2003 when the city sought help after a recession. In May, Taveras sought a $5 million increase.