Councillor Alice K. Wolf, a progressive, agrees with Walsh, who is usually more of a Harvard-basher, that buildings used for research at Harvard should be taxed if the fruits of this research are used by for-profit firms. "One of the things that we always wonder about is how much of this research is really for profit-making institutions," Wolf says.

Harvard's expansion is also a problem for Cambridge's fiscal health, some say. "The city is not large enough to see repeated attempts to take property off the tax rolls," Maloney says.

Walsh says Harvard should be taxed for all the services it receives from the city and for the property outside a small radius of the main campus that it has acquired over the years.

And other councillors are looking to the state for help in recouping some of the lost property tax revenue. Wolf says she and Councillor Timothy J. Toomey are working on a proposal "that the [state] local aid formula include a factor for the amount of institutional land in the city."

This arrangement asks the state to grant more aid to cities that have a lot of tax-exempt land. Wolf says that although this bill will likely not pass, it is "a correct thing to do."

Currently, there is a bill in the legislature, sponsored by State Sen. Robert E. Travaglini (D-Cambridge) and State Rep. John McDonough (D-Boston), to tax one half of one percent of the value of tax-exempt land owned by certain non-profits. Cities and towns could choose individually whether they wanted to levy this tax.

This bill is still being discussed in the committee on taxation, and according to some, it doesn't stand much of a chance. "Similar versions have come up in the past and they haven't passed yet," McDevitt says.

But Harvard's Director of Community Relations Happy H. Green says Harvard, which in 1929 became the first non-profit institution to volunteer payments to its host city, makes tremendous contributions to Cambridge. Harvard offers the community intellectual and cultural events and its students often volunteer in the community, Green says.

In addition, Harvard is a strong financial force in the city, generating money and spending, she says. "It's the largest employer in the city and it's the largest employer of Cambridge residents in the city," Green says.

Councillor Alice K. Wolf says that the city is looking to get more money from Harvard, however, because while Harvard benefits many people in many places, Cambridge is stuck with the whole bill. "Institutions like Harvard really cost the city, but their impact is well beyond the bounds of the city," she says.

Students need not worry that the bill will get sent to them, though. Wolf says that taxing students would require a home rule petition to determine whether it's constitutional in the state. She also says that taxing students, or tuition, is neither feasible nor morally the best alternative.