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Wu says Boston homeowners could see tax bills jump 28% unless legislature lets city adjust levies for commericial lots
By adamg on Wed, 10/09/2024 - 12:57pm
The State House News Service reports Mayor Wu is continuing to push for the state Senate to approve a measure that would let city assessors temporarily increase the total amount they can level in taxes on commercial property as a way to help reduce impending increases on residential property.
The issue is an overall decline in the assessments on commercial property due to workers continuing to stay out of downtown office buildings, which means that to keep the city budget balanced without major service cuts, residential levies would have to increase. The House has approved the Wu proposal; the Senate has not.
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Or... Now hear me out....
Or... Now hear me out....
The city could cut spending to match the revenue. The Mayor could, if wanted, go through all the city agencies, contracts, allotments, and find places to cut.
Anyone who says that spending cuts are not possible is either fooling themselves or invested in keeping the administrative bureaucracy alive.
It's not that easy..
The budget has already been approved. Additionally, they would need to cut $265,000,000 which is the equivalent of thousands of jobs. Which would you cut?
Also, this proposal is essentially identical to one that was granted to the Menino administration in 2004. It more or less cuts the initial tax increase by 2/3 for residents with the option of extending for three years (i.e. residential taxes will still go up but not by as much). Commercial properties will still see a reduction in taxes, just not as significant as they would if no action is taken.
Historically (1980s to early 2000s), commercial taxes were 70% of the property tax base, this then reduced to 60% from 2010-2024 and would further reduce to ~54% if no action is taken. This action keeps it around 58% Commercial, 42% Residential.
If no action is taken, everyone in the city will see a big jump in the cost of living. Month to month leases would be immediately increased. Also, many tenants have provisions in their 12 month leases that allow landlords to pass along property tax increases during their term. Worse still, renters will see a disproportionately high increase as their properties do not have homeowners exemptions for taxes. You can use this link to see how much your landlord currently pays in taxes: https://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/search/.
All in all, this is a reasonable approach that has been approved for Boston in the past and other cities in MA more recently. Additionally, it has been approved by the City Council and House. However, we continue wait for the Senate to take action. Please email your senator and ask them to support this common sense Home Rule Petition.
https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
Why keep thousands of jobs
Why keep thousands of jobs just for the sake of keeping the jobs. Are all thousand of them essential to keep the city running?
that is my point. It will take political will to go through and propose radical changes to get the bloat, if any, under control.
Governments have a hard time reducing its size, and often actively works to prevent getting smaller.
But I agree that since the budget has already been passed, it needs to be funded.
Not exactly the same
I believe Menino cut the city budget as part of the emergency request. Also, how is this a temporary thing? CRE will be like this for at least the next 20 years. No sane employer in the Greater Boston area will require RTO knowing the traffic. Employees would quit. Those office buildings are toast.
My plan to rubble-ize some of
My plan to rubble-ize some of the larger office buildings on the waterfront to build a large seawall is starting to sound more realistic following your logic @Matt.
Ok but hear me out
We could also start charging market rate for the parking permits that we hand out for free.
I don't disagree with you..
But Wu tried that in 2019 and everyone lost their damn minds..
https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2019-04-24/boston-city-councilor-wu-prop...
$25
For a year of street parking is more than reasonable.
Charging $1000 per year in
Charging $1000 per year in neighborhoods like Back Bay would still be way under market value. Drivers should be embarrassed to get so much welfare. Their selfishness takes money away from schools, housing, emergency services, parks etc.
Absolutely this should be done!
But not until next year after she wins her 2nd term...
Mayor Wu
Where are the budget cuts? Her budget calls for an 8% increase in city spending.
BPS amounts for around 30% or 40% of the cities Budget
I am sure there are cost saving measures in that amount such as closing and merging underenrolled schools and selling off unused real estate. And my kids are enrolled in BPS. I could find millions in savings in administrative rolls that work in the Bolling building as well as in the cost of busing students, we could cut that number in half if BPS returned to neighborhood schools.
Reduce the residential exemption too, that's a steal for those of us that owner occupy our homes in Boston, especially anyone that bought over 10 years ago like me.
https://www.boston.gov/departments/budget/fiscal-year-2025#:~:text=The%2....
All perfectly sensible ideas.
All perfectly sensible ideas.
To that I would add right-sizing the fire department. Despite the number of major fires declining by over 90% over the past 50 years, we maintain the same numbers of firefighters at a higher pay, with hundreds of them earning more than the mayor's $200k a year*
Unfortunately none of this is even under consideration. You won't hear Wu -who I generally respect- or any elected official even mentioning it; it is political third rail. Maybe a serious fiscal crisis will allow for these kind of common sense reforms some day but we are nowhere near that situation and I wouldn't even bet on that.
* https://www3.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/09/07/plenty-firefighters-but-wh...
Medford would love this to pass
Medford is desperate for commercial properties. If Wu manages to hike the commercial tax rate, it's going to send some firms to the nearby (or not so nearby) suburbs if they need to maintain a physical Boston presence but don't need to be in the city itself.
It's not going to be a stampede, but it will accelerate the push out of the city.
In the long term, Boston is going to need to figure out how to pay the bills with a much higher percentage of revenue coming from residences. This proposal sounds like the city is just hoping the commercial market comes roaring back in a few years. That seems unlikely.
Mayor Wu may have interned with Tom Menino . . .
but her vote buying instincts are right out of Chicago.
The story told of James
The story told of James Michael was less that he was corrupt than that he cored out the downtown by increasing taxes on businesses to keep them lower on voters - and keep himself in office. Sound familiar? The more things change ...