text: From today's Op Ed section in the New River Valley Current:
  Let's get straight about the meals tax discussion. The unfair competition argument is a red herring. No normal consumer travels to campus, hunts for an expensive parking spot and fights student crowds to avoid a few cents on a dining hall meal purchase. Even if the university could collect taxes, the collections are estimated to be about $40,000 annually. This pales in comparison to the voluntary $250,000 annual franchise fee paid to the town by VT Electric Services.
  The facts are facts. There's far more money being dumped into Montgomery County, and Town of Blacksburg coffers, by the university then just a meals tax. And all of the New River Valley (and the region) will be benefit by having the new arts complex in our backyard. We use their campus, we put a drain on their resources, and then we nickel and dime them on a meals. Tax.
  Whether Larry Hincker is providing an official response by Virginia Tech to the Play Fair Tech campaign or not, it's an excellent commentary outlining the REAL financial benefits the university brings to our region.