5 questions for today's Council hearing on Mayor Wu's refiled tax shift proposal & Councilors' tax relief plans
PLUS Read BPI’s testimony about how “vertical inequity” negatively impacts homeowners
This afternoon at 2 PM the Council’s two most powerful committees - Ways & Means and Government Operations - are hosting a rare joint hearing. The reason is clear: Mayor Wu is once again asking Beacon Hill for tax relief for the City’s residential property owners by raising taxes on Boston’s commercial property. Her new proposal includes the entire 2024 tax shift proposal that failed to gain legislative approval in December, but has two new tax relief policies added on: a tax rebate and senior tax exemption. In addition to that, there are three other dockets on tax relief offered by City Councilors on today’s agenda. Check out all four agenda items:
Docket #0142 home rule petition to increase Boston’s homeowners property tax exemption from 35% to 40%
Docket #0236 Mayor Wu renewed effort to pass her failed 2024 tax shift proposal.
Docket #0269 on Boston’s assessing practices
Docket #0270 on a proposed “Good Landlord Tax Abatement”
BPI has five questions and three follow-ups about these dockets that aim to learn more about how the Wu administration is thinking about property tax relief for Boston homeowners, the FY26 budget, and City Hall’s relationship with leaders on Beacon Hill & at the City’s leading civic organizations.
Before getting to those questions, BPI is testifying at today’s hearing on an important issue that is has not gotten much press attention: Docket #0269 at today’s hearing, Boston’s assessing practices. Specifically, BPI is presenting about “vertical inequity,” when as the value of a single family home or condo rises, property tax assessments often do not rise proportionally, resulting in proportionally lower assessments on higher valued homes. Check out more in BPI’s testimony:
Look for more on this issue in the coming weeks: BPI is preparing a new report about how Boston stacks up on “vertical inequity.”
5 QUESTIONS & 3 FOLLOW-UPS FOR TODAY’S HEARING
QUESTION 1 In December Mayor Wu’s tax shift proposal failed in the State Senate after the four business groups who negotiated the deal, along with Senate President Karen Spilka and one of her top deputies Senator William Brownsberger, effectively accused Mayor Wu of negotiating in bad faith. Has Mayor Wu or her team undertaken any sort of review of the negotiations with those leaders last fall to determine what caused the miscommunication, and can the members of that team who are testifying today share any lessons learned from this episode?
FOLLOW-UP Given the views expressed about Mayor Wu’s tax shift proposal by State Senate leaders in December why is City Hall resubmitting the entire 2024 proposal plus two new pieces, a senior tax exemption and homeowners’ rebate, instead of just submitting those two ideas for tax relief as stand alone home rule petitions?
QUESTION 2 The home rule petition includes a rebate that would be paid to homeowners if the Mayor’s 2024 tax shift proposal does not pass by March 1, 2025, but the Mayor’s letter and subsequent press coverage are unclear about how this rebate would be paid for: where would the money for the rebate come from?
FOLLOW-UP If there is enough unspent money in the FY25 budget to allow for spending on programs like the proposed tax rebates in docket #0236 & the Mayor’s Housing Accelerator Fund, why did Mayor Wu provide a list of painful budget cuts she claimed would have to be imposed to meet the initial demand from the business groups for mid-year budget cuts during negotiations over her tax shift proposal last October?
QUESTION 3 How would increasing the homeowners exemption from 35% to 40% affect the property taxes of residential properties that are not eligible for that exemption?
QUESTIONS 4 The FY26 budget process is starting next week with the release of Boston Public Schools’ budget, and in mid-April Mayor Wu will release the City’s FY26 budget: should the Council expect to see any additional proposals for homeowners tax relief in that FY26 budget?
FOLLOW-UP If no tax relief proposals are going to be included in the FY26 budget, does that mean that Docket #0236 - the administration’s home rule petition being heard today - is the only proposal for homeowner property tax relief Mayor Wu will make in 2025?
QUESTION 5 In an August 2022 analysis former Boston Assessing Commissioner Ronald Rakow wrote that evidence of vertical inequity in Boston’s property assessment “warrants further study and review of both valuation approaches and assessment data.” What action has Boston taken to do that?
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