. . ."[In 1970/71 the plan for the future Como Student Community Cooperative housing complex] became mired in a public debate over whether the University should continue to build student housing of any kind. Much of the debate turned on the tax-exempt status of University-owned land and buildings. Minneapolis city officials felt that it would be unfair for the city to provide municipal services to student families living on land exempt from the property taxes that financed the municipal services. Minnesota voters recently had passed a constitutional amendment that called on legislators to tighten up the definitions of non-taxable land. . ."

. . . "[University officials] offered to pay the city an annual sum equal to approximately one-half of the tax which the city would have collected from the project had it not been tax-exempt. According to one University official, the Como housing project would never have been built without this payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT). The payments would later become the focus of an acrimonious debate between the University and the first CSCC Board of Directors. . . "

. . . "After protracted discussion, the Board of Regents voted in June 1976, to end the assessment against CSCC for the PILOT payments. All monies which the University had ever collected for PILOT were refunded with interest to CSCC, and the payments to the city were ended. . . ."