Vellucci Requests University Keep Property on Tax Rolls

City Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci told Harvard officials Tuesday he would propose an ordinance to prevent the University from removing property from the city tax rolls without City Council approval unless Harvard agreed voluntarily to such a plan.

Vellucci said yesterday he was concerned with the "erosion" of the city's tax base caused by the University's conversion of taxable holdings into tax-exempt property.

"Since Governor King and the Cambridge city manager want to put caps on spending, I think Harvard ought to put some caps on their actions as well," Vellucci said.

Michael Brewer, assistant vice president for government and community affairs, said yesterday that Vellucci's decision was "an interesting one," adding that he expected to reply to the proposal within a week.

If the University agrees to Vellucci's proposal, it would have to increase its payments in lieu of taxes to the city when it did make buildings tax-exempt.

Vellucci said the payments would have to "be 100 per cent of what the city gets now in taxes, and they would have to be permanent."

The University has already promised full payments in lieu of taxes on 7 Sumner Road, a Harvard-owned building that will become tax-exempt when it is converted from residential apartments to Graduate School of Design office space.

"We don't pull things off the tax rolls as a tax dodge," Robert Silberman, vice president for property management at Harvard Real Estate Corporation said yesterday. "If we convert something, it is because the University perceives a real need for it," he added.

The tax money is necessary to prevent cuts in the number of teachers and in funds for elderly centers, youth programs, and other projects, Vellucci said. "The working class of Cambridge feels the University is doing them in, "Vellucci said.

"It's a great proposal," James L. Sullivan, Cambridge city manager, said yesterday. "Any time they take something off the tax rolls it means we will never get revenues from that site in the future."

Vellucci said that if the University didn't agree, he would not only file an identical proposal with the City Council but also "wage major verbal war" against the University.

"The Board of Overseers are nervous about the bad public relations between the city and the University," Vellucci said. "If alumni read stories about the strain between Harvard and Cambridge, they won't give the dollars," he added.

Brewer said he did not know what effect the strain was having on alumni giving.