Students can't afford to fill Pittsburgh's budget gap, many of them told City Council yesterday at a public hearing that started with a request for a college president's salary and turned into something of a contest for the title of poorest scholar.

The city's annual budget hearing focused on the 1 percent tuition tax that Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has proposed in an effort to find $15 million a year to bail out the city pension fund. The proposed $453.8 million budget won't rely on the tax, and a tentative vote on the levy tomorrow would just be the beginning of a lengthy fight that could move to the courts and Harrisburg.

No sooner had the first speaker, Carlow University President Mary Hines, finished criticizing the tax, when Councilman Jim Motznik asked for her salary.

"My salary at Carlow University is $210,000," she said.

After another speaker said private citizens' salaries were none of council's business, Mr. Motznik defended his question. "If you are a president of a hospital or university that claims to be nonprofit, your salary is certainly our business," he said.

Mr. Motznik said the tuition tax debate is really "about the nonprofits in the city not standing up and doing what they should do" by contributing more to the city's coffers.

To many of the three dozen students who spoke before council, it was about their meager incomes.

Jacob Brown, a University of Pittsburgh student, said he has earned $3,500 this year washing cars -- a lean year after he made $4,500 last year.

"I barely scrape by," he said, adding that his out-of-state tuition is paid by scholarships and loans. The $233 he'd have to pay if the tax is enacted "would be the better part of a month of rent," he said, or a big slice out of his bottom-of-the-barrel food bill.

Kathleen Salerno said she and her husband moved to the city neighborhood of Fineview when he was finishing his studies, and now she's trying to complete her doctorate in neuroscience at Pitt. Her husband was recently laid off by the state, and she is precluded by the terms of her National Institutes of Health fellowship from working outside of the lab.

"This tax would put a huge strain on our family," she said. "I don't really know what we'll do if it passes," other than maybe putting it on her credit card.

Ashley Kunkle, a Carlow University student, said the tax would cost her $217. That's close to one month's payment on the $3,000 a year she pays the school after financial aid. The tax would apply to the total tuition bill, regardless of whether it is paid for with scholarships.

"I make approximately $3,500, working two jobs," she said. That "$217 means that I could abandon the city of Pittsburgh to study at other fine institutions where there is no tuition tax."

Charles Shull, president of Pitt's student government board, said he makes "negative $12,000 a year" because he takes out student loans that far exceed what he earns. "I pay rent. I pay property taxes. I pay wage taxes," he said.

Around 150 students attended the hearing, bringing anti-tax petitions that they said contained 10,150 signatures.

City Chief of Staff Yarone Zober pointed out that many Pittsburghers -- not just students -- are struggling to get by. "Everybody has to pay their fair share toward the cost of running government and providing city services," he said.

Crediting students for other taxes they pay to the city, or basing payments on student income, would violate state law, he said.

"It would be great for the universities to pay [the $15 million], or provide a credit against [the tax] on the tuition bill," he said. The universities have threatened to file suit to invalidate the tax, the state-picked Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority has forced the city to remove its expected revenue from the 2010 budget and state Rep. Paul Costa has said he will introduce legislation to pre-empt it. Nonetheless, five of nine council members have said they will vote for it.

An umbrella group of more than 100 tax-exempt organizations paid the city $14 million, total, from 2005 through 2007, but offered only $5.5 million for 2008 through 2010. Mr. Motznik called that offer "an insult."

Councilman Ricky Burgess called the tuition tax debate "a waste of time," saying the levy will pass, but could be rendered moot if the city and tax-exempt institutions negotiate meaningful voluntary contributions.

Mr. Zober said the threat of the tuition tax hasn't, so far, prompted any better offers from the universities -- but that isn't a step backward. "They weren't looking to contribute any more before this, either."

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