Dependable Erection

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

I wonder if Bill Bell's read this

Mayor David N. Cicilline said today he has not made a decision yet about whether to seek legislation that would allow Providence and other municipalities to levy an annual tax on every out-of-state student who attends a private college or university in Rhode Island.

In an interview with Providence Business News, Cicilline said he is still discussing the proposal with lawmakers, in addition to administrators and students at the city’s four private schools: Brown University, Johnson & Wales University, Providence College and the Rhode Island School of Design.

“This is really about everyone working together, doing more than they’ve done in the past to support the health and prosperity of the city,” he said.

I have absolutely no idea whether this is workable, desirable, or even Constitutional.

But i know that if it were to ever get on the table in Durham, you'd see some heads exploding. And that alone might be worth the price of admission.

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4 Comments:

  • Alternatively, we could just collect parking fines on all the SUVs with Jersey plates that park however they want on our residential streets.

    By Blogger toastie, at 11:11 PM  

  • I was shocked to see a photo of my Brown University on the Herald-Sun home page today.

    As mentioned in the article, the four private schools in Providence already pay ~$2.5 million per year as "payment in lieu of taxes". (Decide for yourself whether it's compromise, extortion, or just calling the same thing by a different name).

    The new tax add roughly triple that amount to the Providence coffers. One big difference, though: the tax would come only from the students, and they'd pay the tax directly. It wouldn't come from the university (which derives most of its budget from things -other- than students).

    Tax economists will no doubt analyze how Cicciline's plan is/isn't equitable, or how the plan doubly impacts some parties while ignoring others. I imagine that they'll also ask, "how much will it cost in administration time and $ to chase down $300 from 25,000 people, many of whom have addresses that change annually".

    Does Duke do a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes? Or something else? Just curious.

    By Blogger Marsosudiro, at 11:26 AM  

  • Extortion is exactly what it is.

    Duke does not do a payment in lieu of taxes; they simply provide the most jobs in Durham and are the engine of economic growth for the City of Medicine.

    By Blogger Lila Rose Rollins, at 12:40 PM  

  • Probably not a good idea.

    Duke employs a lot of local people and many of those folks live in Durham and pay taxes.

    Many naive Duke freshman help pay for the aggressive hobos on 9th Street, too!

    But I like toastie's suggestion.

    By Blogger Tony, at 12:40 PM  

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