Back in March Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said that the City needed an emergency tax hike on commercial property owners to protect residential tax payers from a jump in their tax bill. On Thursday, May 30 the Boston City Council is holding its second hearing on that proposal, a home rule petition that would allow Boston to temporarily tax commercial real estate above the state-mandated limit.
So what does this home rule petition do, and what will its impacts be? There are three things that help answer those questions:
What happened at the first hearing;
A new private-sector analysis that casts doubts on the tax hike’s ability to raise revenue; and
Polling from BPI that shows how Boston’s residents feel about the CRE Tax Hike Home Rule Petition.
The hearing is on May 30 at 10 AM and is being held virtually. Learn more about the meeting from its Public Notice and watch the meeting live on the Council’s YouTube Channel.
HERE ARE LINKS TO THE TESTIMONY, PRESENTATION, AND POLL INFORMATION
The first three clips are all from the Government Operations Committee hearing on April 16, 2024 - check that out here.
The first two are of CFO Ashley Groffenberger's testimony that starts at the 34:38 mark and she is Speaker 12.
The exchange between Councilor Worrell and Commissioner Ariniello starts at the 1:42:48 mark.
Video of Daniel Swift's presentation, and the panel discussion organized by NAIOP-MA that followed it, can be viewed here and Daniel Swift's slide deck can be found here.
The top lines for BPI's poll can be found here and the slide deck John Della Volpe used in his presentation can be found here.
WHY AM I GETTING A VIDEO? BPI is experimenting with different methods of presenting & distributing our work. In addition to email BPI has been regularly posting clips from the meetings highlighted in our newsletter and previews on TikTok and Instagram. This is the first time BPI has done a video explainer - please watch it and let us know what you think in the comments or by emailing info@bostonpolicyinstitute.org!
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What to know about Mayor Wu's CRE Tax Hike