But not in Philadelphia. While the Nutter administration is grappling with city unions to lower the cost of its pension obligations, Pittsburgh is in crisis. That city's pension fund has a huge shortfall and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is trying to tax anything that moves to raise money to fill it. His latest idea: charge a one percent city tax on higher-ed tuitions. As you can imagine, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon U. -- to name two of the city's biggest schools -- were not amused. Instead, they got a deal to make undisclosed additional voluntary payments to the city budget in lieu of taxes. Should we call them UAVP's? These are huge institutions that are non-profits and, as such, pay no property taxes to the city. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a
report on the deal.
