State to Consider Taxing Universities' Dormitories

Despite the endorsement of Boston's Mayor Collins, there is little chance that an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution to permit the taxation of university dormitory property will pass the Legislature this year, Charles P. Whitlock, Special Assistant to the President for Civic Affairs, said last night.

Whitlock's opinion followed a statement by Mayor Collins that he would approve the taxation if it is "constitutionally and legally possible." The Massachusetts Constitution now prohibits taxation of any property used for educational purposes, but a bill currently before the Legislature would amend the Constitution to permit taxation of dormitory property.

The bill was introduced by Boston City Councilman Christopher Iannella, who considers student dormitories a money making proposition for the universities. According to both Iannella and Mayor Collins, the colleges in this area alone take real estate worth $5 1/2 million in taxes from the tax lists for dormitory space and then make a substantial profit from the room rates charged to the students.

Whitlock said that the University, like most educational institutions in Massachusetts, is opposed to taxation of dormitory facilities for unmarried students. He does not feel that the bill has much chance of passing, however, because it would involve amendment of a Commonwealth statute which guarantees exemptions for both educational and religious institutions.

A change in the statute would make monasteries and nunneries as well as college dormitories liable to taxation, and Whitlock feels that the Catholic Church would fight any such move.

The problem of living quarters for married students is also of special concern to government officials. According to Mayor Collins, "there is a legal question as to whether when some married students live in a dormitory, and other married students live in an apartment house in close proximity one building should be taxed and the other should not."

When questioned about Harvard's provisions for married students. Whitlock said that the University maintains dormitory space for married students in the Irving Street Apartments in Cambridge and the Shattuck International House in Boston and voluntarily pays full taxes on both buildings. He also observed that "most Boston colleges do not pay taxes on their facilities for housing married students."