Pittsburgh's Brain Drain Game (taxing college students could make city's financial problems worse)

Forbes ^ | 12/19/2009 | Jim Russell

[SeekAndFind]

For all the good that the G-20 Summit did for Pittsburgh's national image, the city's proposed tuition tax on local college students might as well be another big belch of steel mill smoke hiding Southwestern Pennsylvania from world view. The so-called "Fair Share Tax" will, according Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, help raise money needed to pay pensions for retired city employees. But while Pittsburgh does need to make good on the promise made to public employees in the past, the proposed 1% tuition tax tacked onto the substantial financial burden college students already carry won't help. At best, the revenue is a drop in the bucket. The negative publicity the plan is generating could make the pension crisis worse.

The pension agreements were dependent on unrealistic visions of the future. As long as the tax base kept growing, civil servants could expect a good retirement. But Pittsburgh has been shrinking since the 1950s. After the collapse of the steel industry, young adults left the region in droves, essentially robbing the city of a generation. Furthermore, urban families were flocking to the suburbs. That left the politicians scrambling for money to pay for the all the past extravagance of a more prosperous and populous time.

ame. Instead, it taxed the wages of commuters, among other schemes.

The latest gambit is another bandage on a gaping fiscal wound. The city is on shaky financial ground, but the success of the local universities and colleges , thanks to a recent run of great publicity, world renown. The "eds and meds" revolution has yet to reverse the long standing decline of population. That has Ravenstahl eyeing the endowments of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

Caught in the middle are students, who are supposed to foot the bill that Pittsburgh can't pay.

[Erik Latranyi]

It is a nice analogy to make for the uninformed that our local and state governments face the same pension obligations that brought GM and Chrysler down.

[OldDeckHand]

"It is a nice analogy to make for the uninformed that our local and state governments face the same pension obligations that brought GM and Chrysler down."

Well, it's clear that the same people who bailed out GM & Chrysler will be the same people who bail out local and state governments - the American taxpayer, who are quickly turning into bloodless turnips.

[VOA]

“
Pittsburgh’s Brain Drain Game (taxing college students could make
city’s financial problems worse)
“

Tax what you want less of.
Lower taxes on what you want more of.

It’s just that simple.

I can’t recall the title, but some sociologist/historian has produced
a good book detailing the birth of modern capitalism.
IIRC, it really started in Italy...but was put on the run by kings/rulers
that always decided to kill the golden goose.
Thus these enterprising individuals moved, and moved, and moved and
eventually ended up in Holland where confiscatory taxes were not imposed.

(Well, of course that was the case a couple of centuries ago!)

[Nowhere Man]

I live in the Pittsburgh area and when I heard the various councilmen who kept saying the Universities and such need to contribute more and so on, I got so angry. First, UPMC, University of Pittsburgh runs a first class medical center and that alone brings a lot to the community. They also donate a lot to the city through charity activities and so on. Yet city council wants them to give more. I feel like I’m seeing “Atlas Shrugged” before my eyes.

[mo]

Lets see them tax this....

http://straighterline.com/

[SeekAndFind]

Hey, if they can tax online Amazon purchases and transactions, why not distance or online education ?

Don’t give them any more ideas.

[martin_fierro]

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[Leisler]

Why should the muffler shop guy, or the bar, or sandwich shops, pay more taxes to subsidise academics and students?

This is why these schools are always expanding, using eminent domain to take over small business.

The schools are like the old Catholic Church, joined at the hip with the King/government, and providing propaganda cover for the king/government in return for ‘favors’.

Let the schools, the hospitals, the patients and students pay their share of the taxes they support, but don’t want themselves to have to pay.

[toothfairy86]

I live in the Pittsburgh area and attended the University of Pittsburgh. You’ll see how quickly students decide to attend the side campuses as opposed to the main campus for at least the first 2 years of their education. Jim Quinn’s First Law...”Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent.”

[gwilhelm56]

Please don’t say this too loud ... My Governmental IDIOTS here in the PPeople’s REpublic of NY .. haven’t thought of this one ...YET!!!

[twigs]

I dare say that their return to the community is substantial in so many ways. The city is very short-sighted.

[Leisler]

Bull. Everybody says that what ever they do, is critical. Cops, firemen, churches, junkyards and disco palaces.

It’s just that the hospitals and schools, whose employees are vastly higher paid than the regular tax paying common folk, and in the case of hospitals and schools get the bulk of their income not through price or quality competition but by some handout, or government program that ultimately is collected at the point of a sheriff’s gun or IRS audit.

Since, as you say, these are so valued buisnesses...er..instituions, I don’t doubt users of them will more than be happy to pay the extra costs. Right?

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Just as an interesting aside, the University of Pittsburgh’s branch campus at Johnstown can be expanded. On a huge scale. UP owns several hundred, currently unused acres adjacent to the very nice campus they already have there.

It has been rumored that ALL undergraduate studies could move from Oakland to UPJ (once the campus has been expanded).

Take THAT Mayor Ravenstahl and City Dims...as stated above, liberalism always generates the exact opposite of what it intends (kudos to Jim Quinn).

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Or just go ‘out of state.

We have two out of college; one in college (Pitt at JTown); and two more to go.

What I found fascinating, in our college searches, is that OTHER STATES RESERVE SPACES FOR INSTATE STUDENTS...yet PA state schools don’t. Med school in WV...WV residents first...then out of staters; PA med schools...on ‘scores’ only. Ahhh. No. ‘Scores’ and formated admissions policies.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

It is becoming obvious that controls must be imposed upon Federal, State and Local power to tax and spend. If such controls require a constitutional convention, then so be it.