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College Park officials are worried that a June state Courts of Special Appeals ruling could eventually allow the University of Maryland, College Park, to take a major bite out of the city's tax revenue.

UM and the University System of Maryland are looking into whether the university would be exempt from the city's admissions and amusement tax, to which UM pays as much as $550,000 a year. The tax is charged on admission to intercollegiate athletic events at the school.

Several city officials attended a USM Board of Regents meeting Dec. 22, and said losing the revenue would be a significant blow to the city's tax base.

"It is such a significant part of our [$13.3 million] budget," said Mayor Andrew Fellows. "If there is a unilateral attempt to exempt [the university] from the admissions and amusement tax, we really would be put in an adversarial situation."

Events are exempt from the tax if gross receipts are used exclusively for charitable, educational or religious purposes. The state Court of Special Appeals ruled in June that intercollegiate lacrosse games at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore were exempt from the tax, because the proceeds were used exclusively for educational purposes.

The ruling depended upon several factors, including that the money went to a general fund and not the school's athletic department, and that the lacrosse field was also used by the general student population.

The ruling allowed Johns Hopkins to collect a refund of more than $40,000 in taxes paid on lacrosse games from February 2002 to June 2004. UM officials are now looking into whether they could receive similar status from the state comptroller.

As a state institution, the university is largely exempt from city taxes, said City Attorney Suellen Ferguson. She said 37 percent of College Park's property tax base is non-taxable, adding that the city incurs about $800,000 in costs each year to maintain public services for university students, much of which is directly attributable to sporting events.

"Any time there's a game, we're getting trash, more noise and more traffic," said County Councilman Eric Olson (D-Dist. 3) of College Park. "It floored me to that this source of revenue [was being challenged]."

Both Fellows and UM Vice President of Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie said they hope to work together and arrive at a reasonable outcome. UM officials will report to the Board of Regents again on Feb. 12.

"The University of Maryland and the universities in the system do not pay any taxes that they're not required to," said USM Board of Regents Chairman Clifford Kendall. "On the other hand, most of us [regents] feel like if there are services provided that are related to the university, then we should be willing to sit down and work out something that is equitable."

E-mail David Hill at dhill@gazette.net.