Wow. The pension fund must have gotten rocked worse than SEPTA's. Usually when they talk about future generations picking up the tab, it's more of a rhetorical thing:
On Wednesday, the City Council is expected to give preliminary approval to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s proposal for a 1 percent tuition tax on students attending college in Pittsburgh, which he says will raise $16.2 million in annual revenue that is needed to pay pensions for retired city employees. Final Council action will be on Monday.
What? Maybe Ravenstahl is like 25, but apparently his voters are more like 75.
I know very little about Pittsburgh, other than that it's apparently quite nice according to people who I know living there, but this policy is pretty atrocious. For one thing, it's regressive, going after young people who haven't hit the peak of their earning power yet. For another, students are part of the community and already are paying taxes:
“We have jobs in Pittsburgh so we pay taxes on that income, we rent apartments so we pay taxes on that, we have cars here, which provide parking taxes,” said David Gau, an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, adding that he resented the portrayal of students as freeloaders. “We go to a variety of events like symphony, sports games, plays, concerts, and there are amusement taxes on those that produce even more revenue from us.”
“Why try to divert new people from coming here with a college tax?” added Mr. Gau, 21, who is from Kennett Square, Pa. “It’s the furthest thing from fair.”
Chad Ellis, 28, a graduate student in chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University and a Pittsburgh homeowner, agreed.
“Holding students hostage in negotiations with nonprofits to come up with money to pay for bloated city pension plans is divisive,” he said.
Ultimately this is just a local official trying to rob a largely disenfranchised group blind to cover his own incompetence. Like all big-city mayors, Ravenstahl should be trying to increase his tax base by increasing the population. Making life more attractive with decent schools, a better job environment, and quality transit is the correct approach.
Whacking grad students' stipends is not. This diary is somewhat short because, unlike the generational component of the car-suburbia and house-price bailouts, this is so blatant.