LEWISTON — If Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to tax nonprofit institutions is approved by the Legislature, Bates College may no longer be able to provide services and scholarships to the city or to Maine students, the college president said Saturday.

According to the governor’s proposed budget, nonprofits that have property valued at $500,000 or more would be charged a property tax of 50 percent of the current tax rate. That would not only include Bates College, but Central Maine Medical Center and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

Bates President Clayton Spencer said college officials understand the financial constraints the state and local leaders face.

“However, Bates and other nonprofit institutions provide enormous economic and social benefits to the community that will be undercut by the imposition of new taxes,” Spencer said in a prepared statement Saturday.

“We work very hard to control our costs so that we can offer these programs, as well as generous financial aid to talented students, a large number of whom come from Maine,” she said.

Adding significant new expenses to Bates’ budget, “as the governor’s proposal would seem to do, would threaten our ability to provide these services.”

Among other services, Bates students contribute 70,000 volunteer hours to Lewiston schools and organizations at a value of about $1.5 million a year, Spencer said. The college also provides $4.7 million in financial aid to Maine students each year, she said.

And Bates provides thousands of dollars in grants to Lewiston-Auburn students, as well as thousands of meals to local food banks.

LePage on Friday unveiled his two-year budget, which includes a host of tax changes, including reducing income taxes by $300 million a year by 2019. To do that, he’d raise and broaden Maine’s sales taxes, ending a list of exemptions. He’d also wipe out revenue-sharing to towns and cities next year. Lewiston receives more than $2 million a year in general revenue-sharing.

Lewiston City Councilor Kristen Cloutier said she finds LePage’s proposal to eliminate revenue-sharing “extremely disappointing and seriously concerning.”

Lewiston works hard to keep property taxes stable and services reliable, she said. “Revenue-sharing has helped us do that. When the governor cut revenue-sharing last year, we were able to keep property taxes down by making cuts elsewhere.” If revenue-sharing is eliminated, there’s little left to cut, Cloutier said.

“In addition, municipalities like Lewiston depend on many already fiscally strapped nonprofits to provide social services to our residents,” Cloutier said. “Taxing those organizations will only put more pressure on their limited budgets.”

Lewiston City Council President Mark Cayer said he too was concerned about the loss of general revenue-sharing. “It would be devastating,” Cayer said Saturday night.

But he was “optimistic about this budget” and the options the governor suggested municipalities consider, such as taxing large nonprofits.

Next week the city will run numbers to get a clearer picture of how LePage’s proposed changes would affect the city and taxpayers.

“We can’t allow the shift to go to property taxpayers; that’s key,” Cayer said.

In Auburn, Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said he was open to the governor’s changes.

LaBonte works for LePage as director of the Governor’s Office of Policy and Management. In June LaBonte resigned as executive director of the nonprofit Androscoggin Land Trust.

The current decades-old formula for revenue-sharing “is in no way tied to efficient delivery of core local services, or the economic output of cities like Auburn,” LaBonte said. “To defend status quo over new solutions isn’t a way to move Maine toward prosperity.”

A way to help property taxpayers most in need is to provide a direct tax credit to those with low incomes or to expand the homestead exemption for seniors, not through revenue-sharing, LaBonte said.

When it comes to taxing nonprofits, those organizations already get special consideration for the work they provide, LaBonte said. “When their revenues exceed expenses, as in when they make a profit, the state and federal government doesn’t tax them on that like we do other corporations. But those same substantial nonprofits create demand for local services like fire protection, public works and law enforcement.”

The University of Vermont makes a multimillion-dollar annual payment to the city of Burlington for services, LaBonte said. “In Boston, a major task force advanced local service funding models to address hospitals, college, research institutions and others to make sure they paid their fair share for local services.”