Weekly Transcript Round-Up for 10/25/24: Tax Shift Deal prompts Emergency Meeting PLUS Council wants more bus data & goes on-the-record on housing production
Mayor Wu struck a deal on tax shift, but the deal's journey through the legislative process got off to a confused start
ICYMI: BPI was in the news a lot over the past week, including at the top of the hour news on WGBH and on NBC10’s coverage of the tax shift deal in Boston:
BPI was also featured in coverage of the deal from the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and Contrarian Boston.
It was a packed week in Boston:
Wednesday’s regular Council meeting included two important issues, partial new data for BPS’ buses on-time performance in the afternoon & the start of a public conversation about why Austin is outperforming Boston on housing production; and
The Council’s first “special” meeting of the year gets Mayor Wu’s tax shift deal started on its journey through the legislative process.
MAYOR WU’S TAX SHIFT DEAL GOES PUBLIC, STARTS PATH TO APPROVAL
First up is a story that has been in the headlines for months: Mayor Wu’s proposal to hike taxes on commercial real estate in order to avoid an enormous increase in homeowners’ property tax bills. On Monday BPI will have an explainer out on what is actually in this deal, but today the focus is on process.
The first part of that process will take place at the City Council, which needs to approve the new home rule petition proposed by Mayor Wu before it can be sent to Beacon Hill.
The Council’s process will be the first time in months that much of the action will take place in public. The home rule petition now before the Council is the product of two separate sets of behind-closed-doors negotiations:
In July between Mayor Michelle Wu and State House Ways & Mean Chair Aaron Michlewitz that was announced on July 31; and
In October between the Mayor and the “Group of 4” - the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, NAIOP Massachusetts, Massachusetts’ Taxpayers Foundation, and the Boston Municipal Research Bureau - that was announced this week.
After announcing a deal with the Group of 4 on Wednesday, October 23 the Mayor submitted the new home rule petition as a “late file” at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. Late files require unanimous support from the Council to be acted on, but the home rule petition was objected to, leading to today’s “Special City Council Meeting.”
At that “special” meeting the home rule petition was sent to the Council’s Government Operations Committee. That committee has already scheduled a hearing on the matter for Tuesday, October 29 at 11 AM.
That hearing will be the first time that the City Council can weigh in on the tax shift deal since they approved the original home rule petition back in June.
Today’s Council meeting was the first emergency Council meeting of the year and was held virtually. It was confusing for those watching it - BPI included - and it was clear that the confusion was shared by the Councilors participating.
Here are two moments from the transcript that capture the confusion:
Here is District 3 City Councilor John Fitzgerald at the 11:03 mark:
I know it's adjourned, but this was an emergency meeting, obviously the first I've ever taken a part of what constitutes an emergency and who decides that? Just so I know that we met the parameters to have this meeting, which I'm fine that we had, but I just want to make sure that people listening at home, they understand what this is and why we were allowed to happen.
Here is President Louijeune at the 16:45 mark:
I have not formally adjourned the meeting, even though there was a vote taken. So all are in consensus with adjournment, which means that I can adjourn the meeting at any moment, because everyone voted in the in the affirmative, but I am allowing for these questions to take place normally, when a matter again is referred to Committee, it's when the within the purview of the committee chair.
Councilor FitzGerald’s question also goes for more Councilors than just him, because this is the most inexperienced City Council in decades. 5 of 13 City Councilors were elected in 2023 - that means that for more than 1/3 of the Council this was their first emergency meeting. On top of that the dean of the Council is Ed Flynn, elected only seven years ago in 2017. Following him in seniority are Councilors Breadon and Mejia, who were both elected in 2019
BPS ON-TIME BUS PERFORMANCE DATA REQUEST ONLY 2/3 DONE, LOUIJEUNE LOOKING INTO IT
The 17F request from Erin Murphy looking for BPS on-time performance data in the afternoon contained dozens of pages of information, but did not fully respond to the request. Here is Councilor Murphy - she is Speaker 20 and begins at the 44:21 mark:
The response to the request for the time the last student is dropped off from each bus route was responded with, “Boston Public Schools Department of Transportation does not collect this data.” I called Dan Rosengard* because I know this is not true. He did say they collect it, but it's a lot of data, something I told him I'm okay with. *Dan is BPS Transportation chief
Councilor Murphy asked to “remand” this response back to the Wu administration, which President Louijeune declined to do, telling Murphy: “I will have that discussion with them.”
COUNCILORS GO ON THE RECORD ABOUT HOUSING PRODUCTION
Docket #1561 from District 5 City Councilor Enrique Pepen is a follow-up to his experience at the Democratic National Convention back in August, where he took to heart the call from President Obama & Vice President Harris to build more housing - check out his interview on Radio Boston back in August.
This docket prompted the most pro-housing production statements from Councilors that BPI has heard this year. Unfortunately, none of the Councilors who spoke directly touched on how Austin has built orders of magnitude more housing than Boston.
Six Councilors spoke on the docket - here is the highlight from each speech:
Councilor-At-Large Henry Santana - he is Speaker 15 and starts at 1:58:04 mark in the transcript:
Austin has undergone substantial reforms in its zoning and development practices, resulting in an increase in housing production, stabilizing home prices, and even reduced rents despite a growing population and strong local job market. The success Austin has experienced demonstrates the potential for zoning, land use, and planning reforms to create lasting impacts on housing availability and affordability.
Councilor Pepen - he is Speaker 21 and starts at the 1:59:47 mark in the transcript:
President Obama in his speech said, one of the major responsibilities of major cities is to build and to be able to build more housing. And that's what we need to do in the city of Boston because the way where we're going right now is a lot of Bostonians continue to be priced out.
District 8 City Councilor Sharon Durkan, who is the Chair of the committee that will host this docket’s hearing - she is Speaker 14 and starts at the 2:01:38 mark in the transcript:
To that end, there is promising data coming out of Austin through proactive policy that touched planning, development, and land use, building codes, and zoning. We're tackling a lot of those in Boston, but it's worth the chance to get to know how they're approaching it and that's not without significant pushback from specific communities. Change is difficult. Zoning changes are hard.
District 7 City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson pointed to the rhetorical similarities between the two cities, pointing toward what will hopefully be the focus of the future hearing: digging into the enormous difference in zoning and planning between the two Cities - she is Speaker 2 and begins at the 2:04:14 mark in the transcript:
It does feel like every like, most of what Austin, Texas have done is very, very, very similar to what, uh, either the mayor or administration or BPDA is trying to do in terms of Article 80, office use, increasing affordability, Code Next, which is one of their policies. Um, you know, although it resulted in rezoning or recoding in how we build it it does feel like we're trying very similar policies.
District 9 City Councilor Liz Breadon’s speech showed how Councilors are wrestling with competing priorities - she is Speaker 17 and begins at the 2:07:19 mark in the transcript:
We have 30,000 units of housing that are already approved and in the pipeline and not moving anywhere, um, and that's a huge challenge for us. We also have to look at what what we've built over the last 10 years. We have developed more luxury and market rate housing than middle income and workforce housing. In fact, the ratios are inversely proportional to what we need and what we're getting. I think we have to accept that there's 2 housing markets in the city of Boston.
While these statements provided an excellent snap-shot of where each Councilor stood on the City’s on-going housing supply crisis, the hearing on this docket promises to be even more interesting. Pro-housing advocacy Abundant Housing Massachusetts released their “Abundant Housing Amendment” for Boston in 2023, which called for by-right 5 story buildings city-wide and 7 stories around subway stops. AHMA’s local member organization A Better Cambridge and their allies on the Council there has successfully abolished parking minimums and are currently working on allowing 6 story buildings to be built by right.
This hearing will be the first time ideas like that will get aired before Boston’s City Council.
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