City college students petition mayor’s Fair Share Tax

College students across Pittsburgh challenged Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s Fair Share Tax.

Their challenge came in the form of an online petition including more than 3,100 signatures from students of Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Carlow and CCAC.

Mackenzie Farone, a Point Park graduate who organized the petition, explained the students’ motivation for challenging the tax.

“College students are a major resource to the city of Pittsburgh,” she said. “We hold jobs and support local businesses, yet for some reason, Ravenstahl views us as a burden.”

Ravenstahl outlined the “Fair Share Tax” during a Pittsburgh City Council meeting on Nov. 9.

Under the tax, college students would be levied 1 percent of their annual tuition — approximately $135 for Pitt students in the School of Arts & Sciences.

The mayor estimated the tax would generate upwards of $16 million per year, most of which would be used to help stabilize the city’s faltering pension fund.

Farone started the petition as a Facebook group last Friday. She sent the petition website to approximately 800 people around the Pittsburgh region, describing her outrage with the mayor’s “Fair Share terminology.

“I wanted to get my voice out there,” Farone said of her decision to post the petition online. “I asked myself, ‘What’s the easiest and quickest way to reach out to college students?’ Facebook seemed like the obvious answer.”

By Monday, more than 1,600 students signed the petition, citing both economic and ethical reasons why the tax should be blocked.

The number of signatures continued to grow steadily by several hundred each day throughout the week. As of press time Thursday, 3,155 had signed the petition.

Kathryn Tarney, a Pitt graduate student who signed the petition, said she believes university students already contribute their fair share of money to the local economy.

“Please don’t pass this tax,” Tarney wrote on the petition website. “The vast majority of students hold jobs and pay local income taxes. Don’t double tax us because we have made education a priority.”

Pitt’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly shared Tarney’s opinion.

The assembly started a similar petition yesterday morning.

Daniel Jimenez, president of GPSA, said the assembly wants to help college students express their opinion’s of the tax in a constructive manner.

“Up to this point, there hasn’t been a lot of student input to the city council,” Jimenez said. “That’s why the council has been more suportive of Ravenstahl than they should be, given the merits of the tax.”

Each signature on the GPSA petition will be sent to city council via e-mail. By 4 p.m. Thursday, 96 e-mails were sent.

“I think that when they receive several hundred e-mails over the course of today, tomorrow and the rest of the week, they’re going to have to listen,” Jimenez said. “They’re going to have to find an alternative to this unfair tax.”

According to Jimenez and Farone, paying money to the city isn’t the only initiative that has so many people worked up about the tax — people are angry about what Farone calls Ravenstahl’s “resentment” of college students.

“The proposal that Mayor Ravenstahl has publicly released paints college students as leeches that give nothing back to Pittsburgh,” Farone said. “I can only speak for myself, but I know I give back my fair share. I’ve payed income taxes every semester since my freshman year.”

In addition to pursuing an master’s of business administration at Point Park, Farone works full time as a program assistant.

“I work everyday,” Farone said. “I pay rent. I pay utilities. I pay for public transit. How is that not a fair share?”

In spite of growing frustrations and legal debate over the tax, Farone felt confident the petition could still impact the mayor.

“If nothing else, this petition will show the mayor not to mess with the college students of Pittsburgh,” Farone said. “We are not a group of lazy, no-good people. Without us, Pittsburgh wouldn’t work.”

Ravenstahl’s tax encountered other obstacles this week as well.

On Tuesday, the state-run Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority unanimously rejected Ravenstahl’s budget, saying that the inclusion of the $16 million he hopes to get from the “Fair Share Tax” doesn’t comply with state law.

The mayor’s office did not respond to repeated calls and e-mails about the tax.