Collegiate Times

If you wanted to save a little money on the Whopper you ordered at the Burger King just off the North Quad, you could rummage through the Give-A-Penny jar. Or you could take the five-minute walk to the Burger King in Johnson Student Center, where your sandwich of choice isn?t subject to the five-percent municipal food tax.

Blacksburg Town Manager Marc Verniel has heard complaints from the local business community about the uneven treatment of business interests on and off campus.

?(The Town Council has) been hearing it from some downtown restaurant and business owners ? Their feeling is that what has happened over the years, there?s been a change in how dining works on campus, especially in the last 10-15 years. You used to have your traditional dining hall, but now you?re seeing more franchises, whether it?s Chick-Fil-A or Au Bon Pain ? they?re really competing with businesses in town, and it?s not a level playing field because they don?t have to pay the same tax,? Verniel said.

While the problem isn?t necessarily new, it still riles local business owners like Mike Soriano, seven-year owner of Champs Sportsbar and Caf? and head of the Blacksburg Restaurant Association.

?It came up again in the last year or so when the meals tax was going to be raised from five to six percent ? If those franchises operating on the Virginia Tech campus, which is in the town of Blacksburg, were to have the food tax, that would outweigh any one-percent increase in the tax for the rest of the town,? Soriano said.

The university currently owns and operates the Au Bon Pain, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Cinnabon and Sbarro franchises on campus, said Jim Dunlap, associate director and contracts manager of purchasing. But restaurants aren?t the only business interests shielded from taxes by university ownership.

?The Inn at Virginia Tech ? that?s another thing that we?ve heard about. It?s probably the nicest hotel in the area, and it definitely competes with others in the area ? but they?re not paying the same meals or lodging taxes,? Verniel said.

Like the Inn, Personal Touch Catering, run by the university, presents a competitive problem to businesses offering similar services.

?Five percent is not typically a big deal, but when you?re talking about larger-scale operations, it can come into play,? Soriano said.

While both Verniel and Soriano have said that the university has been willing to listen to proposals, Kurt Kraus, vice president for business affairs, says that there?s nothing the school can do.

?Fundamentally, it is Virginia law that a town cannot tax a state entity, like this university. The state can tax itself, which is what you have with the sales tax ? but the town can?t tax the department of transportation, for example. There?s nothing that I can do. They?ve said ?well why do you tax a peppermint patty in the bookstore?? Well, that?s not a prepared meal. Short of having the law changed, as long as the university owns the franchises, they aren?t subject to the tax,? Kraus said.

Undeterred, town council member and Tech broadcast media coordinator Paul Lancaster says that just because the law currently reads a certain way doesn?t mean that it should.

?Laws can be changed in the interest of fairness ? if we have to take it to the state, we?ll take it to the state,? Lancaster said.