McDavid open to taxing MU
Other college towns across the country are looking to colleges to shore up their local budget shortfalls and Columbia's new Mayor Bob McDavid said Monday the city should look to others for an example of whether it should raise fees or taxes on MU.
McDavid said he was aware of cities imposing new taxes and fees on colleges. He cited the 2009 example of Pittsburgh, where mayor Luke Ravenstahl proposed a 1 percent tuition tax on students at local colleges and universities. The proposal was dropped due to criticism that it unfairly burdened students at more expensive universities.
This is McDavid's entire answer on whether the city should increase utility charges or other fees on MU:
“I think it needs to be a fair relationship," he said. "I like to benchmark. There are a lot of college towns like Champaign, Iowa City, and Ann Arbor who deal with the same city and university relationships. I think when you talk about something like sewer charges, I think you look at those relationships to see what the best practices are. You see what works well, but best practices also means you learn from worst practices. But there is a lot to learn from benchmarking to other cities that are in the same situation as we’re in.”
Champaign is the home of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Iowa City is the home of the University of Iowa and Ann Arbor is the home of the University of Michigan.