Projo Article
Gordon Fox, House Majority Leader in Rhode Island, D-Providence, is sponsoring legislation aimed at assessing a "student user fee" for private colleges in Rhode Island. This fee, the brainchild of Providence Mayor David Cicilline, would be distributed to the "host communities" for the students use of municipal services.
What the leaders of this state do not realize is that the students that go to the private colleges and universities are economic powerhouses in the state. All students do is spend, spend, spend. They order pizza, buy goods from local convenience stores, they shop at grocery stores, they get coffee, they buy alcohol, you name it they spend money on it. Roger Williams University alone contributes a large sum of money to the RIPTA to give every freshman student a bus pass.
And what about those students who rent houses? They are paying property taxes through their rent, why should they pay more. And the public schools? URI, RIC, CCRI wouldn't have to pay this $300 annual fee. Sorry Cicilline but not every URI student lives in RI.
This bill also neglects to mention anything about private high schools. These high schools have people coming from out of state, why aren't they being taxed?
These students, who do not live in the state, do not get a chance to vote for a representative in the House or the Senate or for the Mayor or for the Governor. Why should they be taxed, by these officials, when they do not have representation within any branch of the Rhode Island government.
No Taxation Without Representation - the very reason our founding father's fought for our freedom.
King George Cicilline - leave us kids alone, stop spending outrageous amounts of money and putting the city into debt. Stop your police officers from driving around the state in police vehicles, using taxpayer gas. Be responsible, for our sake.
