“It’s not meant to be adversarial at all,” said Galluccio, sporting a crimson tie for the occasion.

“It’s inarguable that there are enormous benefits that these institutions bring to our city,” he told the council later. Councillors say they plan to discuss the issue with University President Lawrence H. Summers at an early December reception at Summers’ residence, where Reeves said the lawmakers will “give him our thoughts.”

“Universities have become big business,” Reeves told The Crimson. “Perhaps they should also pay the taxes that big businesses pay.”

David R. Slavitt, a Leverett House Senior Common Room affiliate and former candidate for state representative, dismissed the council’s plans to raise taxes on Harvard.

“Why don’t they also pass a resolution asking Santa Claus to be more generous to all the children?” Slavitt scoffed.

Slavitt’s November opponent, Democratic councillor Timothy J. Toomey, was a co-sponsor of the resolution. “Rep. Toomey has been demagoguing this issue for years,” Slavitt said. “He knows that the constitution of the commonwealth protects Harvard against being taxed the way he is proposing. He is simply looking at an enclave of wealth and privilege and he wants to rip it off for the benefit of the undeserving poor.”

—Staff writer Jessica R. Rubin-Wills contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Michael M. Grynbaum can be reached at grynbaum@fas. harvard.edu.