Re: the student tax

Timothy McNulty | November 9, 2009

Here are some local reacts to Ravenstahl's 1% student tax proposal, first from Bram at Pgh Comet:

Of the four, this one was never my favorite -- perhaps because it was the easiest political lift. It won't overjoy our universities, yet it will fail to engage our hospitals, medical centers, insurers and most other nonprofits. The pain will be nicely segregated from "average" Pittsburghers. This will be interpreted as what it is, a tax on students: a transient, ill-informed, half-engaged "them" (including their unwitting parents) who most voters probably will be happy to see taxed. Just as they were content to see them get "handled" after the G20.

Shrewd? Absolutely, terribly, perfectly. Fair? I'm not certain we will be having that discussion.

And Chris Potter at City Paper:

And quite apart from the politics, there are some pragamatic arguments in favor of this idea too. For years, we've heard about how commuters don't "pay their fair share" of city taxes. But even commuters tend to only be here from 9 to 5. Students, by contrast, are here 24 hours a day. And while the "poor college student" is always a sympathetic figure, the fact is a) they always seem to have money for beer, and b) as Ravenstahl pointed out, their institutions of higher learning already jack them up for a variety of fees.

That's Church:

Lukey, UPMC, and the city schools have been begging nonprofits, corporations, and people like you and I to give to the Pittsburgh Promise to provide tuition dollars for students to go to college in Pennsylvania.  Now, Lukey wants to turn around and tell some of those same kids, "Uh, yeah, here's some money for college.  Now give some of it back to me because I'm taxing your butt now."

Cognitive Dissonance:

It never fails, the Mayor wins a victory and feels he can take dangerous new steps. Now, I happen to work for a University, but I don't think we will be too hurt by this. However, I do wonder where charges for UPMC and Highmark are in this. I think that they should share the pain (and personally I would leave the rest of the non-profits alone, I think they are struggling enough particularly right now).