A consultant hired by Madison Square Garden, Thomas Hazinski, defended the arena’s 25-year-old property tax exemption at a City Council hearing yesterday as “well within industry norms” and comparable to what other New York sports venues receive.

The new Nets basketball arena in Brooklyn will receive $140 million in city subsidies and the new Yankee Stadium $162 million, while the Garden has received $218 million, according to the Independent Budget Office.

“The vast majority of sports venues do not pay property taxes,” Mr. Hazinski said.

The consultant said discussions about the tax exemption came at an inopportune time, as the Garden is considering moving to a new location across the street as part of a plan that would also renovate Penn Station.

Cablevision, the Garden’s owner, has indicated that the move will not go forward unless the company receives its tax exemption.

A Garden spokesman said in a statement after the hearing that the arena “should not be isolated when more than $1 billion in subsidies has recently been provided to all other New York pro sports teams.”

The arena’s exemption, which costs the city $11 million a year, is being challenged by a new City Council resolution and has long been opposed by the Bloomberg administration.

Yesterday, the speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, and Mayor Koch joined a chorus of council members calling for the end of the Garden’s tax exemption.

“Eleven million dollars may not sound like a lot of money to Jim Dolan, but to most New Yorkers, it’s a fortune,” Ms. Quinn said, referring to the chairman of Cablevision, before a hearing on the tax yesterday.

“If he expects the city of New York to extend what is almost a million dollar a month tax break in perpetuity, he’s sadly mistaken,” she said.

Mr. Koch, who oversaw the original 1982 tax agreement, said the benefit should be eliminated. “My original intent was for the abatement to last 10 years. It should never have stretched to an eternity,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Lawmakers at yesterday’s hearing appeared divided. Council Member David Weprin of Queens, a co-sponsor of the resolution against the exemption, called the benefit “welfare for the rich.”

Council members James Gennaro and David Yassky, however, expressed concern that breaking off a deal with the private sector could cost the city credibility in future negotiations.

Council Member Letitia James said that if the council takes on the Garden’s subsidies, it should eliminate other subsidies of private sector companies, such as the tax breaks awarded to the planned Nets arena.

“If they are the bogeyman, then there are hundreds of bogeymen in the city who all should be called into question,” Ms. James said in a phone interview.