Student News >> Browse Articles >> Campus News

Student News >> Browse Articles >> Cutting College Costs & Personal Finance

Mayor Defends Tuition Tax Proposal on College Students

Pittsburgh’s proposed 1 percent tuition tax is just a nibble compared to the bite that college fees and tuition hikes take out of student and parent wallets, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl argued yesterday, as questions surrounded the unique levy he proposed Monday.

The mayor’s attack on tuition and fee hikes came hours after eight leaders of local post-secondary schools gathered to blast the mayor’s higher-education tax plan, saying it’s illegal and would hurt the institutions’ competitiveness. Mr. Ravenstahl said that if there’s a competitiveness issue, it’s the schools’ fault.

“There isn’t an institution in this city in the last five years that hasn’t raised tuition, and in each and every case, the tuition hike has been far greater than 1 percent,” Mr. Ravenstahl said. The city’s proposed addition to the school bill “falls right in line with orientation fees, with transportation and security fees, with lab fees” and more nebulous charges that colleges could reconsider, he said.

The higher education leaders hope for rejection of the tax by City Council, which has been asked to pass a $453.8 million budget that includes $16.2 million from the tuition tax.

“We don’t think it’s going to pass, because we believe it is illegal, and if it does pass, we will have to do whatever we need to do” to oppose it, said Mary Hines, president of Carlow University and chair of the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education. She did not rule out a court battle or a push to get the General Assembly to nix the tax.

The tax — meant to help fill a $600 million hole in the city’s pension fund and aid the Carnegie Library System — must be certified by the city controller and approved by the state-picked Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority. Likely to end up in court is the question of whether the state must approve it.

Right now, though, the battleground is the court of public opinion.

“We’re all about helping the students to receive affordable, accessible education,” said Dr. Hines, after a news conference of college and university leaders. What would be the first tuition levy in the nation, “takes away our competitive advantage in attracting students to this area.”

Mr. Ravenstahl later presented charts showing annual 4 to 6 percent tuition hikes and fee increases.

“If that increase, that $1,000 increase [this year] at Carlow and $1,300 increase at Carnegie Mellon University, didn’t ruin education in Pittsburgh, certainly our 1 percent tax won’t ruin education in Pittsburgh,” he said.

He also pointed an accusatory finger at the add-ons that appear on college invoices, like the University of Pittsburgh’s $160 “student activity fee,” CMU’s $192 “orientation fee,” so-called “college fees” of $460 at Point Park University and $320 at Chatham University, and Carlow University’s $866 “support service fee,” as described in a list the administration generated.

“He doesn’t have exactly a clear view on what the fees are that we charge,” said Dr. Hines.

Some campus officials said Mr. Ravenstahl’s criticism of college fees was misleading.

The list of fees assembled by the administration included eight fees charged by Duquesne University, the largest of which were a $2,083 university fee for such things as campus police, counseling and career services, a $1,042-per-semester M.B.A. sustainability fee, a $650 parking fee and a $330 per-semester Law School fee.

Duquesne spokeswoman Bridget Fare said the mayor’s list included fees that only a subset of students are charged, like the M.B.A. sustainability charge for overseas study in that program.

“An unlawful privilege tax cannot be justified by comparing it to fees that students pay to their campuses for programs and support services,” she said. “This is an attempt to divert attention form a proposal to fix the city’s budget problems on the backs of college students.”

Carlow University’s $866 support service fee is only charged to full-time traditional day students and not to part-time or adult learners, spokeswoman Louise Sciannameo said. It’s for various services including computer use, career services, library access and tutoring, among others.

---