When town meets gown, who picks up the tab?

“In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the university once had more resources than the town, the school built and still operates the water, electrical and telephone system; it has paid half the cost of two sewage disposal plants and all but one fire truck bought by the city; and it makes an annual payment, based on an agreed formula tied to enrollment ($4.96 per student, or $42,000 in a recent year).”

— From “The Free List: Property Without Taxes” by Alfred Balk (1971)

Balk, best remembered for a First Amendment case resulting from his 1962 Saturday Evening Post expose, “Confessions of a Block-Buster,” died last week at age 80.