A Massachusetts senate petition supporting legislation that would lower the state's meal tax from 8 per cent to 5 per cent has been signed by 37 members of the 40-person senate, a legislative assistant said yesterday.

The assistant, representing State Sen. James P. Rurak of Essex County, who filed the petition, said that the petition calls for the reinstatement of the 5 per cent tax, because "the tax on meals should be no higher than the limited general sales tax of 5 per cent."

The 3 per cent reduction would trim about $30 from the $82 paid by Harvard students each semester for the meals tax, R. Jerrold Gibson, director of the University Fiscal Services, said yesterday.