the rix mix

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The mayor of Providence wants to slap a $150-per-semester tax on the 25,000 full-time students at Brown University and three other private colleges in the city, saying they use resources and should help ease the burden on struggling taxpayers.

Mayor David Cicilline (sis-ah-LEEN-ee) said the fee would raise between $6 million and $8 million a year for the city, which is facing a $17 million deficit.

If enacted, it would apparently be the first time a U.S. city has directly taxed students just for being enrolled.

The proposal is still in its early stages. But it has riled some students, who say it would unfairly saddle them with the city's financial woes and overlook their volunteer work and other contributions, including money spent in restaurants, bars and stores.
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Cities often look for revenue from universities to compensate for their tax-exempt status, and many schools already make voluntary payments to local governments. Providence's four private schools — Brown, Providence College, Johnson & Wales University and the Rhode Island School of Design — agreed in 2003 to pay the city nearly $50 million over 20 years.
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The four schools generate more than $1 billion a year in economic activity, said Daniel Egan, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island. They employ nearly 9,000 people in a city of roughly 172,000.

Brown's executive vice president for planning calls this proposal "counterintuitive." It sure is. Brown is a wealthy school with tax exempt property, but I doubt the students generate heavy use of police & fire services. I would imagine the crime mostly comes to Brown from the city, not vice versa. They're a smart Ivy League bunch, & a smart politician oughtn't tempt them into organizing economic boycotts or registering & voting en masse in local elections. Taking $150 of coffee money might push them. Providence is a small capitol city at the center of big metropolitan area with 10 times the population. Those people use the city & its public services, too, & they ought to ante up a little more. If Rhode Island is anything like Jersey, the absurd idea that a city exists in isolation from its region is commonplace in suburbia.

Wiki notes that Providence has the largest number of coffee & donut shops per capita in America. The arena is named "Dunkin' Donuts Center."