Providence mayor wants to tax college students

[thelakelander]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. â€" The mayor of Providence wants to slap a $150-per-semester tax on the 25,000 full-time students at Brown University and three other private colleges in the city, saying they use resources and should help ease the burden on struggling taxpayers.

Mayor David Cicilline (sis-ah-LEEN-ee) said the fee would raise between $6 million and $8 million a year for the city, which is facing a $17 million deficit.

If enacted, it would apparently be the first time a U.S. city has directly taxed students just for being enrolled.

The proposal is still in its early stages. But it has riled some students, who say it would unfairly saddle them with the city's financial woes and overlook their volunteer work and other contributions, including money spent in restaurants, bars and stores.

full article: http://wire.jacksonville.com/pstories/us/20090513/439492064.shtml

[mtraininjax]

Why are they so suprised? They live there, use city services, consume what is in front of them, pay for it, why not pay a little more for quality of life there. After all, the universities include quality of life in their sales pitches.

[Lucasjj]

This appears to me to be a way to get around the property tax exemption for the college. Instead of having the college pay taxes that would funnel down to the students, they are just directly charging the students.

[CMG22]

You.  Have.  Got.  To.  Be.  Kidding.  Me.   

Do private schools not pay property tax?  Do students not pay sales tax?  Do working students pay any state taxes?  Do students not patronize local businesses that do pay taxes?  Do students not volunteer within the local community?  Does having a university within the city not attract people and entities that interact with the university, who pay other taxes and spend money?  Do universities not convey prestige upon the area where they are located?

Yes, let's provide yet another disincentive for higher education.

The best part of this is that students are allowed to vote where they reside (even if it is within college dorm).  I think this mayor just found himself 25,000 votes for his opponent next term...

[obie1]

CMG22- those private schools DO NOT pay property tax, FWIW, and in a small city that is a huge chunk of land to not pay taxes on. It sure helps the image of that particular city to have such prestigious schools there but most of the rich kids and educated peeps do not stick around after graduating (just like Yale and New Haven back near where I am from) so fire services and police etc. calls are a bigger strain on the city than an extra $300/yr from an ivy leaguer's pocket

[CMG22]

I know that Obie, but the article states:

Providence's four private schools â€" Brown, Providence College, Johnson & Wales University and the Rhode Island School of Design â€" agreed in 2003 to pay the city nearly $50 million over 20 years.

Charging $150 x 25,000 = $3.75M
Meanwhile $50M / 20 = $2.5M, or two thirds of what they're looking to get from the students...

That’s not too shabby for organizations that are not required to do anything.  This just seems to be a slap in the face to the institutions, and especially the students.

These yuppie kids don't all live on campus, either.  They rent (maybe even mommy and daddy purchased) property.  These yuppie kids have their parents' credit cards, too.  I went to JU and witnessed it firsthand.  To say that students don’t pay their fair share, in one way or another, is absurd.

Even though I could go on about this forever, I’ll end with this.  With the on-campus job that I had at JU, it would have taken me 22+ hours to cover this fee.  Ridiculous.