Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s stalled tax shift bill will be taken up by the state Senate Thursday for the first time since it was killed there more than a year ago, but this time as an amendment filed for an alternate Senate-led tax relief proposal.

State Sen. Michael Rush, a Boston Democrat, filed an amendment to state Sen. William Brownsberger’s property tax shock bill that mirrors the language included in a home rule petition the mayor has been pushing for nearly two years that would shift more of the city’s tax burden from the residential to commercial sector.

“Property tax relief is a pressing issue for my constituents — and residents throughout the state,” Rush said Monday in a statement to the Herald. “On behalf of the people of Boston, I have filed the home rule petition passed by the Boston City Council to provide property tax relief for Boston residents.

“As the Senate considers several worthy proposals designed to address affordability in the Commonwealth, I am glad this proposal will be part of the discussion,” Rush said.

Wu’s office told the Herald Saturday that the mayor had requested the amendment.

“Every senator has the opportunity to submit amendments related to these bills by Monday, and we have asked Boston’s senators to offer an amendment with our residential tax relief language that has been vetted thoroughly and never received a vote,” a Wu spokesperson said in a statement. “We are following closely and hope the final bills will include this needed relief for residents.”

Wu has said her legislation is aimed at lowering the 13% tax hike the average single-family homeowner is projected to face this year. Third-quarter tax bills went out to homeowners earlier this month.

The mayor’s bill seeks to shift more of the city’s tax burden onto commercial property owners, beyond the 175% state limit, for a three-year period.

It is set to be debated, along with several other amendments that have been filed by senators for Brownsberger’s property tax shock bill, at Thursday’s session.

“All amendments filed by members of the Senate will be considered by the full body during our session on Thursday,” a spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka’s office said Monday in a statement to the Herald.

A vote is expected on the bill and underlying amendments on the same day, according to state Sen. Nick Collins, a South Boston Democrat whose alternative tax relief bill and amendments will also be considered.

Collins, who opposes the tax shift element of the mayor’s home rule petition and helped lead the push to kill it on the Senate floor in late 2024, has put forward a bill and amendments that include other elements of what Wu has proposed.

He’s pushing for tax rebates for low- and middle-income homeowners who already receive the residential tax exemption by using surplus funds, along with senior, veterans and small business tax relief provisions.

“I think that the relief measures are positive in terms of the amendments that I and others have filed that are relief in nature or relief options, but I think anything that involves a tax increase is going to be difficult,” Collins told the Herald Monday when asked about the chances for the mayor’s proposal.

“Especially when the city is sitting on $552 million of what they consider to be free cash, it’s hard to make the case that tax increase is necessary,” Collins added.

In a statement issued by his office, Collins added that the city’s decision to hike residential property taxes by double-digits “with so much in the City of Boston’s surplus fund” was “unnecessary, unfair and clearly inequitable.”

“To cancel out that tax increase, my legislation would authorize the city to issue direct rebates to homeowners,” Collins said.

He pointed to a similar approach that he said was taken at the state level in 2022, when the governor and legislature issued rebates after tax revenues exceeded the cap established under voter-approved state law, Chapter 62F, which limits the growth of state tax collections.

In terms of Rush’s amendment, Collins said he’s also concerned that the senator’s language would make the mayor’s tax shift bill applicable statewide, rather than just in Boston.

A chaotic carousel is turning at Boston City Hall.

One week has passed since City Councilor Liz Breadon, who represents District 9, was elected president following a last-minute candidacy.

“It’s been a very rock start,” said District 2 City Councilor Ed Flynn.

“It’s really important, today, that we move forward,” said City Councilor Sharon Durkan of District 8.

Breadon claiming the gavel was aided by a late-night meeting from Durkan and District 5 City Councilor Enrique Pepén, who came to Breadon’s home hours before the vote asking her to be a compromise candidate.

In November, District 1 City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata claimed to have the votes needed to become council president, but she faced a challenge from City Councilor Brian Worrell of District 4.

Coletta Zapata bowed out of the race the night before the vote.

“This city council election for presidency divided the council,” said Flynn. “Many people thought of all the 13 city councilors, the most talented and well-respected was Brian Worrell.”

“You actually saw it all play out in real time on the council floor,” said Durkan. “A lot’s been made about the visit that I made to Councilor Braden’s house. It really, I just thought she would make a good president, and when I was unable to reach her on the phone, I just thought, ‘Why not.’”

Questions have also swirled about whether Boston Mayor Michelle Wu played a role in Breadon’s candidacy.

“My choice for president has always been about what I think is good for the city, but it’s true, what’s good for the city council and what’s good for the mayor is good for the city,” said Durkan.

That back-and-forth spilled into the weekend. On Friday, Breadon told NBC10 Boston’s @Issue that she would choose Coletta Zapata as her vice president. But on Saturday, she said Coletta Zapata wanted to be chair of government operations instead, and that Worrell would be vice president.

Sunday night, Worrell said he would decline the role, and on Monday, Coletta Zapata said she had accepted it.

“I look forward to a city council that’s ready to work, together, for our city,” Coletta Zapata said via text message.

Breadon echoed those sentiments on @Issue.

“It behooves me to really engage with my colleagues and try and heal the wounds and move forward as a solid body,” she said.

The Boston City Council does not have a scheduled meeting until Jan. 28 as committee assignments for the term are finalized.

Have you noticed a lack of major snowstorms over the past several winters here in New England? Perhaps you’re wondering if this is a new permanent pattern. Snowfall across New England is highly variable, particularly here in the Boston area and the rest of Southern New England, where we lie on the southern edge of consistent snowfall.

First, let’s look at how radically different winter snowfall can be. On Feb. 25, 2022, Boston received 8½ inches of snow. That was the last time the city saw a 6-inch snowfall, which is meteorologically considered a “major snowfall” in New England (accumulation of at least 6 inches of snow). Roughly 1,414 days later and counting, we are now in the midst of our second-longest streak devoid of 6-inch snowfalls, since data was first recorded in 1872. You have to go back to 1988-92 to find a similar “major snow” drought. That streak lasted 1,772 days.

As a side note, the Boston area would have to make it through this entire winter without a major snowstorm to move into the No. 1 spot. Will we do it?

These gaps in significant snowstorms might be considered mini snow droughts, but when they end, the winter weather pattern tends to shift in the other direction. For example, when that streak ended in 1992, it ushered in three of four blockbuster winters, including one that dumped over 107 inches of snow in the winter of 1995-96.

This very snowy mid-’90s was followed by highly variable snowfall seasons with as little as 15 inches of snow in 2001-02 and as much as nearly 87 inches of snow several years later during the 2004-05 winter season.

Then, starting in 2008 and lasting until 2018, we experienced the snowiest decade on record in Greater Boston with a total of 543 inches of snowfall.

If you move the starting point to winter 2015-16 and conclude through 2025, we received only 333 inches of snow, marking the lowest 10-year period of snowfall on record. This is where we currently sit, and it makes sense with the lack of major nor’easters nearing New England over the past several winters.

Even winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service have fallen. Check out the chart below, and you’ll notice that the past several years have seen fewer than six winter storm warnings issued.

All of this should not lull you into a false sense that we are in some new paradigm without major coastal storms or that it’s not going to be snowy again. On the contrary, nor’easters are actually getting stronger and are generating more precipitation than they used to. According to research published last summer on the intensification of the strongest nor’easters, noted climate scientist Michael Mann and five of his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania looked at how our famous coastal storms have changed over the past several decades.

“Our analysis of nor’easter characteristics reveals that the strongest nor’easters are becoming stronger, with both the maximum wind speeds of the most intense nor’easters and hourly precipitation rates increasing since 1940,” the researchers said.

The reason why I’m mentioning this while also talking about the lack of snow in our region is that both can be true. As we have seen, snowfall itself is very cyclical. That cycle is occurring amid a backdrop of a warming climate. With more and more anthropogenic CO2 — carbon dioxide emissions resulting from human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels — average temperatures have increased, and that rise has led to an availability of more energy for coastal storms.

As the oceans warm, they provide more latent heat or fuel for these nor’easters. Additionally, with warmer temperatures and still an availability of cold air to the north, there’s an increase in temperature contrast, or what meteorologists call “baroclinicity.” This is a critical feature and aids in the rapid intensification or bombogenesis of low-pressure areas east of the Atlantic Seaboard.

The Perfect Storm back in 1991, the Storm of the Century in 1993, the so-named Snowmageddons in February 2010 and winter 2015, and the January 2018 blizzard are all examples of unusually strong nor’easters.

The trend in maximum wind speed in nor’easters has increased since the middle of the last century. You can see from the Mann paper some of the actual data used to reach this conclusion.

In addition, hourly precipitation has also increased in these coastal storms. This means that crippling snow and flooding rain are becoming more likely in spite of the recent dearth of these types of storms locally.

In the same way that we haven’t had a hurricane reach the shores of New England since 1991, so too are we overdue for a major nor’easter. Both are in our future. It’s just a matter of when.

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