Left of Centre

• More Movement on the Non-profit Taxation Front + a Bonus Video

  
  
  Another development in the battle to get non-profits to carry their weight from State Senator Wayne Fontana who
  ...said today that he will introduce legislation allowing municipalities to charge tax-exempt institutions a fee based on their property holdings.
  
  Mr. Fontana said it would allow municipalities to [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 10:41pm EST
  

• A Zig While We Were All Waiting For the Zag

  A new development in the battle between Pittsburgh government and the city's nonprofits occurred earlier this week. Forget about taxing tuition or a fee for county services this is big news.
  Legislation quietly introduced Tuesday in Pittsburgh City Council gives the city's nine lawmakers veto power over [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:49pm EST
  

• Pittsburgh Tuition Tax Proposal is Still Alive

  The despite the  reported demise of a proposal by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to tax college tuition it is in fact alive and well
  Tuition tax battle lines began to emerge on Pittsburgh City Council today, as Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's Philadelphia legal gun laid out the [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:39pm EST
  

• A Big Win For Team USAS, A Bigger Win For Workers

  The New York Times reports this evening on some big news on the anti-sweatshop front.
  The anti-sweatshop movement at dozens of American universities, from Georgetown to U.C.L.A., has had plenty of idealism and energy, but not many victories.
  
  Until now.
  
  The often raucous student movement announced on [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:04am EST
  

• Helping Penn State Live Up to Its Mission

  The Collegian had a story earlier this week on Seth Williams' victory in his race for Philly DA. I'm very happy about that win and I'm sure that Seth will be an extremely good, progressive district attorney. But from some of the quotes in the story, it appears' [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:28pm EST
  

• A "Fee"-ture Story

  I wrote a few days ago that Allegheny County was having second thoughts about imposing a fee on tax-exempt organizations. The Allegheny County Council made it official today.
  Nonprofits will not have to pay new fees after Allegheny County Council backed off its essential services fee proposal Tuesday.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 9:27pm EST
  

• Someone Needs to Explain the Concept of Transparency to These Guys

  A few years ago the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) teamed up to put together the Voluntary System of Accountability which is provides a uniform template for colleges and universities to report information for prospective students and their [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 10:35pm EST
  

• By the Numbers

  I've finally found the number I've been looking for and it's exactly the number I guessed it would be.
  
  I've written a bit about the problems with the Washington Monthly University Rankings. (Here, here and here.) A big problem is that they report an almost [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 9:05pm EST
  

• Oh Graham, Oh Graham, How Deep Are Thy Pockets?

  From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, comes the following news.
  Penn State mailed out second-semester tuition bills today with rates unchanged from the fall even as state funding remains in legislative limbo.
  It would seem to me that Old Main must have been hoarding quite a bit the tuition increases from [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 5:48pm EST
  

• Fee.... Fie Fo, Fum

  This morning the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that
  Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato on Friday vetoed a bill that would impose a fee on nonprofit groups, saying the bill County Council passed is illegal and exposes the county to a lawsuit it would have little chance of winning.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 12:55pm EST
  

• Six Degrees of ....

  ...Glenn Beck's Colon.
  
  This is John Stewart at his very, very best.
  
  Technorati Tags: Daily Show, John Stewart, Glenn Beck
  
  
  
  

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  ' [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 9:48pm EST
  

• We Have Your Students and Unless We Receive the Money...Well You Don't Want to Know...

  Spring semester tuition bills are set to go out soon and the Penn State and the other state-related universities still haven't received their appropriations from the state. Will tuition go up come January? That's what the presidents of the state-related universities suggested in a letter to House Speaker Keith [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 8:33am EST