:: The Bitch Girls ::

:: Friday, January 03, 2003 ::

Help Me Out If I'm Wrong Here Erie, PA wants to start charging colleges a $50 per student tax for city services. Aside from generally disliking most taxes, I can't see a justification for this. First of all, how much do the students contribute to the local economy? I may attend a small school in a fairly small town, but the money spent by our students is fairly significant. I will be the first to admit that it's not enough to support most businesses through the entire year, but it certainly provides the town quite a benefit. But, more importantly, I think this kind of stuff is factored into the census. I remember that the college closely supervised those of us doing the census forms because they needed to make sure we used our college address since we are there most of the year. (A residential campus keeps us there about 9 months.) Obviously the capitalist oppressor in me is rapidly consuming more of the resources in New England, as opposed to the precious resources in Virginia and Oklahoma. Anyway, I was told that the reason it was so vital was to see that federal and state funds could be allocated properly to account for the populations really living there, even if I maintain a permanent address in Virginia. I don't know what mysterious funds they were talking about, but it seemed to make sense to me. Point in all of this, why add on another $50 per student? Are they already getting some kind of compensation for the use of resources and services? If the city only adds to the rise in tutition that is inevitable, that just might end up hurting them in the end.

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:: Bitter 2:57 PM [+] ::
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