Many a collegiate eye will be focused on Providence, R.I., and its mayor’s effort to impose a $150-per-semester tax on each of the 25,000 full-time students at Brown University and three other private colleges in the city. Mayor David Cicilline contends such a fee would raise between $6 million and $8 million a year for Providence, which is facing a $17 million deficit.

This would be the first time any U.S. city directly taxed students just because they are enrolled. About the closest thing to such a step was when Lawrence once proposed a “wheel tax,” assessing all motor vehicles owners, university and otherwise, $10 a year to boost the local budget. It failed badly.

Cities such as Lawrence and Providence often look for revenues from universities to compensate for their tax-exempt status and the fact that the students and schools benefit greatly from services provided by the city without much direct input. Students and university people always reply that they should not be saddled with additional costs because of their volunteer work, cultural contributions and the fact they spend so much money in restaurants, bars and stores.

Providence’s four private schools, Brown, Providence College, Johnson and Wales University and the Rhode Island School of Design, agreed in 2003 to pay the city nearly $50 million over 20 years. Thus the effort to get an additional $300 per student per year understandably is getting strong opposition and, like the wheel tax in Lawrence, is doomed to fail.

At least for now.

However, for years, cities have been trying to devise better ways to get students to help support city infrastructure and pay for such services as fire and police protection. The Providence mayor’s office says it has no figures on how much it costs to provide additional services for students. The schools’ property valued at more than $1.7 billion is tax-exempt, a gap that must be tolerated by taxpayers. The situation is not much different than that of Lawrence and Kansas University. Periodically KU and Lawrence talk things over, but more often than not, no major moves occur.

Providence Mayor Cicilline said it’s not just about money; he wants students to have a vested interest in the city instead of seeing themselves as visitors just passing through. “It’s really about a shared commitment to the well-being of your community that you’re a part of. Everyone should be doing their part and coming to the table,” said the mayor.

The Rhode Island “head tax” needs approval from several sources and is unlikely to get it from any of them. But it does bring out into the open something civic and academic people long have discussed, and it could factor into the restructuring of the economy to meet new financial challenges.