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Students in Pittsburgh have been finding lots of ways to express their displeasure with a measure introduced by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to tax all students in the city the equivalent of one percent of tuition. At the most recent city council meeting Friday, 50 students attended and four students spoke. Many also plan to attend the city council meeting on Nov. 30.

Students have talked about organizing a student voting bloc to voice their anger at the polls, and have created a website, www.stoptuitiontax.org to help organize against the tax. As of last Wednesday, 2,543 people had visited the website.

The bill, called the “Fair Share Tax,” would raise an estimated $16.2 million dollars to go towards city worker pensions and the city library system.

While some claim the students would never be able to organize themselves effectively at the polls, it may not matter. Wednesday, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (ICA) unanimously rejected the version of the budget that contains the tax. The mayor has until Dec.  31 to come up with another budget plan.

Last Thursday, Carnegie Mellon University’s Student Body President Rotimi Abimbola, Student Senate Chair Aaron Gross, and Graduate Student Assembly President Patrick Gage Kelley wrote a formal e-mail statement of opposition.

“The city’s current budgetary problems — the result of over 60 years of financial mismanagement — should not be placed on the backs of students working hard to better themselves,” said the email.

Gross thinks that students’ resulting anger will make Pittsburgh’s youth more politically involved for the long haul.

"I think in a very backwards way, the mayor may have given us a little favor in pushing for this tax, because it's really gotten students engaged…My feeling is that students who have been through this issue will definitely come out and vote come next election because of it."

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