PITTSBURGH -- Mayor Luke Ravenstahl says he has enough City Council votes to pass his controversial tax on college students -- but before he goes that route, he's calling on Pittsburgh's universities to negotiate for voluntary payments instead.
Ravenstahl stood with council members Jim Motznik, Ricky Burgess, Tonya Payne, Darlene Harris and Theresa Smith at a news conference on Thursday morning and said an annual 1 percent tax on students' tuition can be avoided if the city's post-secondary schools make payments to the city each year in lieu of taxes.
"We hate this tax, but we know we have to do something, and we're willing to stand up and we're willing to be criticized because the city's future is in jeopardy," Ravenstahl said.
The in-lieu payments were suggested by Burgess during a City Council meeting this week. He said Boston's educational institutions pay $8 million annually to that city.
"We do not want to impose a tax on the students. We hope that will never happen," Burgess said Thursday. "But it's up to the universities to take their great wealth and share it with the city."
If a tuition tax eventually happens, Ravenstahl said it will be because the city's post-secondary schools -- which are exempt from paying property tax -- did not step up.
Twitter Updates - Channel 4 Action News reporter Bob Mayo tweets the mayor's news conferenceThe
Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education -- representing the city's major universities and colleges -- released the following joint statement from the heads of those schools in response to the mayor's comments:
"The Presidents of the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education (PCHE) institutions have offered to meet with the Mayor and with City Council to discuss our concerns about the proposed 1 percent Tuition Tax on students which they are planning to pursue. We will continue to oppose this proposed tax as unfair to our students, who already pay many taxes to the City for services they and others receive. Our legal counsel advises us that the tax is illegal and unenforceable.In addition, the Mayor has not acknowledged the many taxes paid to the City by the PCHE institutions. We also reject the Mayor’s attempt to use the tuition tax as a ploy to pressure us to negotiate away our tax-exempt status.We are willing to discuss alternatives already available to the Mayor and to City Council to balance the City’s budget, but we will oppose any alternatives, which we believe violate the law providing us with appropriate tax exemptions."
A tuition tax would amount to several hundred dollars per year for students who attend the most expensive schools -- such as Carnegie Mellon University -- and as little as $20 or $30 for community college students.
"If you're frustrated, please take that frustration back and talk to the heads of those universities who have not given what they deserve to give to the city of Pittsburgh," Motznik said.
November 10: College Heads Lash Out At Mayor's 'Fair Share' Tax PlanRavenstahl said a "band-aid" approach will be used to avoid deep cuts and balance the city's budget for 2010 without a tuition tax. His plan includes some suggestions made this week by Controller Michael Lamb and Councilman Bill Peduto for one-time revenues, including an auction of items from the soon-to-be-closed Mellon Arena.
But Ravenstahl said the rest of his state-mandated five-year budget plan for 2011 and beyond will count on cuts, including police officers. Those 2011 cuts can be avoided with a tuition tax that would help fill a $15 million budget hole, he said.
"To hold the city of Pittsburgh hostage and to say we're going to lay off police officers and close our pools and do everything else is like holding a gun to our own head and saying that 'unless we get our way, we're going to shoot.' It's ridiculous," said Peduto, who opposes the tuition tax.
Ravenstahl originally tried to use a tuition tax to balance his 2010 budget, but
that attempt was shot down on Tuesday by the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which oversees Pittsburgh's financial recovery under the state's Act 47 plan. The mayor suggested that the ICA board "is controlled by the few and the privileged."
At Tuesday's ICA meeting, Ravenstahl warned that potential cuts could include one class of 40 police officers, 25 police officers, the Greenfield fire station and all school crossing guards.
When the ICA refused a budget with a tuition tax, the board members did not take a stand on the issue of the tax. Rather, they worried that the tax would not be legal or enforceable, so they said the city cannot balance a budget on it, although the city is free to pursue it separately.
"I question this board's ties to the colleges and universities in this town," Ravenstahl said on Tuesday. "Who, exactly, does the ICA represent?"
By law, Pittsburgh's budget must be passed no later than Dec. 31.
"Whether it's us paying the money or the university, it doesn't matter because it's going to come out of, you know, things that we like to do. It's going to still affect us as students," said Mike Seiler, a junior at Pitt.
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