Cities looking for new sources of revenue to replace declining federal, state and local aid are attempting to extract taxes or fees from religious, educational and charitable organizations whose property has been exempted from taxes since colonial times.

In Syracuse, N. Y., for example, 58.7 percent of property in the city is tax-exempt. The city is $16 million short in its $160 million budget, and the city-owned parking garages and Parks Department headquarters are up for sale. The mayor has proposed charging churches, universities and hospitals a fee for road maintenance, police protection and other "core services."

Actions are being taken in other areas:

• Colorado voters will decide in November whether to repeal real estate tax exemptions for religious or charitable groups, and last year a state commission in Maine proposed that the legislature consider the issue.

• In New York City, where 30 percent of the property is tax-exempt, five Democrats on the City Council last year proposed taking away the tax exemption of "elite nonprofit institutions" -- those with executives earning $130,000 or more.

• In Delaware, Maryland and other states, cities have formed downtown "special benefit" districts that require nonprofit institutions within their borders to pay fees for services like street cleaning.

• In Connecticut, where the state reimburses cities for a portion of the taxes lost to nonprofits, towns are lobbying to increase the rate of reimbursement.

Mandatory fees aren't the only way to gain revenue from nonprofits. In Ithaca, N. Y., officials recently withheld building permits from Cornell University, and last year the university agreed to increase voluntary annual payments to the city from $147,000 to $1 million by 2007.

Albany, N. Y., faces a different obstacle to its plans to charge fees. As a state capital, 73 percent of the property in the city is tax-exempt, but the city would need the permission of the legislature to collect fees from the state agencies there.

Source: William Glaberson, "In Era of Fiscal Damage Control, Cities Fight Idea of 'Tax Exempt,'" New York Times, February 21, 1996.