Living in DeKalb makes you feel like the wimpy kid at school. You try to live your life, go to school and play with your friends, but like clockwork, the bullies find you and take your lunch money.

Many people think that the big bully in DeKalb County is the local governments taxing residents too much, specifically when it comes to property tax.

Some of the candidates think taxes are too high. Specifically, Mark Pietrowski (running for the DeKalb County Board) was quoted by the Daily Chroincle as saying, “The main goal of local government should be ensuring residents have the services and protection they need without being driven out of the community by taxes that are too high.”

As students, we feel that we are getting an especially raw deal. First, these high taxes cause us to pay more in rent, and seeing that many of us only have part-time jobs, it makes it hard for us to do other things like go out to eat or drink, buy new underwear to replace the tattered ones we currently wear and fill our gas tanks at $4 a gallon.

Second, why should the apartments and townhomes in which we dwell be taxed the same as single family homes? Most students are only in DeKalb eight months out of the year. We pay for our own police, library and pool through tuition, and most of us do not have children that use the public schools.

An estimate of property tax that a student living off but near campus in an apartment complex is as follows. For this estimate I used Stadium View (SV) Apartments 2 and 3 because they are close to campus, in nice condition, and I used to live in SV3.

The mean rent for SV2 is $905, being that three and four bedroom units are equal in number. The rent for a SV3 two-bedroom apartment is $745. The acreage consumed by SV2&3 equals 2.95 acres.

According to property tax records, in 2009 SV2&3’s property tax total was just over $150,000.

Averaging 3.5 people per unit (ppu) in SV2 and 2 ppu in SV3, the number of people residing at SV2&3 is about 258. The mean property tax levied on each unit that consumes roughly .035 of an acre is $1,786, which translates into about $700 of property tax per person a year. Divide that $700 by 12 months and you get $58 of rent per month per person that going towards property tax.

Is this fair? Well, to know for sure we need to compare the property tax burden for other DeKalb residents.

The 200 block of River Drive is a middle class neighborhood. The homes in this area all take up .165 of an acre, which is 4.5 times more property per unit than SV2&3.

In fact, 18 of these homes can fit into the acreage consumed by SV2&3. Factoring 3.5 ppu, the number of people living in this area would be 63.

Using 2009 archival data for nine units-which for the total I multiplied by two-the mean property tax was $3,806, while the median was $3,964. The combined tax collected for these home was $68,508, which translates to $1,087 of property tax per person per year.

Quinlan Avenue is located in a upper class subdivision. Only eight homes would consume the same amount of acreage as SV2&3. Again using archival for four units-multiplied by two for total-the mean property tax was $8,761 with a median of $8,856 and combined total equaling $70,000. Again using 3.5 ppu the number of people living in this area is 28. Property tax per person equals $2,503.

By comparing this data I believe that the property tax burden on students is not fair; yet, it is also not substantial enough to justify the rent charged for an apartment.

Take my hometown of Moline for example. If I lived in Moline, I could get a brand new 3 bedroom apartment with all the amenities and a river view for $765 per month. Or, I could get a two bedroom apartment which is just as old as SV2&3 for $505. I could do all that in a city with a property tax rate higher than DeKalb’s.

I spoke with DeKalb Mayor Kris Povlsen about these issues. In regards to the rent difference between DeKalb and Moline, Povlsen said it was a matter of “supply and demand.”

When I asked him about increasing supply, he said that the city council would be reluctant to approve any new complexes because there are already 500-1,000 vacant apartments.

Even though 6 percent of the apartments in DeKalb are vacant (census), that is not enough to have true competition. Sure, a complex might have 2-3 vacancies, but that is not enough to make them lower the rent to attract occupants.

When asked if the property taxes charged to students is justified in light of the services we use, Povlsen said, “That is part of community. We come together so we can share in the costs and benefits of those things we cannot supply ourselves.”

In DeKalb, the bullies are the landlords. They know we have to come to school and wait for us at recess to take our lunch money. They are the ones that need to understand that sense of community Povlsen spoke of.

As students and renters, we should take action.

Elect officials that will cap the profits landlords reap and make special taxing districts for student living. Or, you can always move out of DeKalb.

I have, and I am enjoying my 1,100-square foot apartment for which I am paying less than my old 700-square foot SV3.