Council starts process to set Boston's 2026 Tax Rates
Tax classification docket in the Agenda Packet for Wednesday's Council meeting means rate setting vote is coming soon
The Council is starting on one of its most important processes: setting the tax rates for next year. While the docket filed today did not include certified property values or the 2026 tax rates, the Council’s tight timeline means those details will be public soon.
This year the tax rates are being set by Docket #2045, an “order relative to the adoption of tax classification in the City of Boston in FY 2026.” As is the Council’s tradition, the docket was offered by the Ways & Means Chair, Brian Worrell - find it on p. 80 of the 12/03/25 Agenda Packet.
If this docket follows the timeline of previous years, after it is formally offered at Wednesday’s regular City Council meeting it will be sent to Worrell’s Ways & Means Committee. Worrell will then schedule a hearing on the docket before his committee.
The timing for that hearing is tight: the Council’s final meeting of 2025 is next week on December 10, 2025, so the hearing needs to be held before then.
As for how much properties are worth in Boston and how much they will have to pay in property tax, the docket didn’t contain any of that information.
Exactly when those details will become public is not clear: last year the hearing for this docket was held before the state certified Boston’s property values. That meant the Council learned about the tax rates they would be voting on via letter from CFO and Treasurer-Collector Ashley Groffenberger - find it on p. 23-24 of the 12/11/24 Agenda Packet.
This year the process is happening a few days behind last year’s dates, which could mean the Council will have certified property values and proposed tax rates for the hearing with City Hall finance staff.
More information on the docket, the hearing, and the tax rate vote is coming soon, so make sure to subscribe!
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