As budgets across the country are strained by the pressure of the economic climate, some cities are starting to think about taxing the student population attending universities located in those cities — a practice which is likely to spread should it pass, according to an expert from the American Council on Education.
The mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, is exploring a tax on students dubbed the “Fair Share Tax.” It would add a 1 percent tax onto college tuition. Pittsburgh contains seven colleges and universities with 100,000 students who do not pay to use city services, according to a press release on the mayor’s Web site. The tax would raise $16.2 million in a year for the city, the press release said.
“Every day, public safety and public works personnel are providing core services to the thousands of students in our city,” Ravenstahl said in the statement. “Whether it’s a building inspector called out to a rental property, or public works crews picking up students’ garbage, it all adds up to costing city taxpayers.”
D.C. has 12 colleges and universities, which thousands of students attend each year, according to the College Board Web site.
Should an identical policy be implemented in the district, AU undergraduate students would be obliged to pay $344.56 per year in taxes, based on one percent of this year’s tuition rate at AU, which is $34,456. The AU tuition rate changes year to year, and it has gone up annually at least since 2003, according to the AU Annual Reports on the university’s Web site.
While Ravenstahl does not think it fair for “working people ... to shoulder this burden [of public services] alone,” Jackie Schumacher, a graduate student in the School of International Service, said such a tax would not be fair to college students because studying is not their occupation.
“If you’re generating money for the economy it should be taxed, but if you’re not making money [you] shouldn’t be taxed,” Schumacher said.
Junior in the College of Arts and Sciences Laura Harris said she does not think such a tax would be a good idea for D.C. because students are not the only people in the city who use its services and resources without being taxed.
“There are a lot of people who come to D.C. that don’t live here that use resources all the time,” Harris said. “I just think that’s not fair to students and their parents to have to pay more than they thought they would have to pay here at schools ... AU is already expensive.”
Ravenstahl is not the only mayor considering dipping into students’ wallets. In April, the mayor of Providence, R.I., David Cicilline, proposed a fixed tax of $150 per semester for students at schools including Brown University and Providence College, according to an article in USA Today, even though those schools have voluntarily donated to the city government for the past six years.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office did not return calls to say whether a similar tax is planned for university students in the District.
You can reach this staff writer at mfowler@theeagleonline.com.
