The university has offered a payment in lieu of taxes, but Representative Rachel Kaprielian, who represents the districts of Watertown and Newton, terms the offer "grossly inadequate. We're looking for one day's interest on their endowment. They should just pay their taxes. This is not a matter of their ability to pay." The Arsenal battle spurred Kaprielian to file legislation that would force nonprofit institutions to pay property taxes if the property it purchases is more than one percent of the commercial tax base of the town. Senator Steve Tolman has filed an identical bill in the Senate.

According to Anne Brown, a member of the counsel for the taxation committee if the legislation is passed it would be retroactive to purchases that occurred after January 1, 2001. Brown tells GlobeSt.com that Harvard would be forced to pay commercial property taxes on the Arsenal property even if it was converted from commercial to educational use. Brown notes that the Arsenal is 33% of the commercial tax base of Watertown, so "it is substantial."

The bill went before the taxation committee and according to Kaprielian, who is also on that committee, it received a very favorable reception. Kaprielian adds that Cambridge Mayor Anthony Galluccio testified on the bill's behalf, stating that his town would also like to be able to prevent Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from taking large pieces of property off the city tax base. "I am confident that there is a lot of legislative support for this bill," Kaprielian tells GlobeSt.com. "Nineteen billion dollar entities shouldn't be able to strangle small towns."