Boston’s proposal to shift the burden of its property taxes away from homeowners is effectively dead in the Legislature.
Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, said in a statement Monday night that she did not intend to bring the home rule petition back to the floor when the Senate reconvenes on Thursday.
With days left for the city to finalize its property tax rates before January bills go out, this means city officials will not have time to rethink and resubmit a new proposal.
“Many in the Senate believe that this proposal tips the scales too far in one direction, with a stalled economic recovery in Boston as an unfortunate potential outcome,” Spilka said.
“My job as Senate President is to work toward compromise, always; without it we would accomplish nothing. It is also my job to listen to the members of the Senate, and I have heard clearly that there currently is not sufficient support for this proposal,” she continued.
Mayor Michelle Wu unveiled the original tax shift proposal in April in response to declining commercial property values in the wake of the pandemic, as fewer people traveled to the office for work.
To avoid homeowners having to make up for that loss on their taxes, she proposed requesting a higher percentage of the tax levy from commercial owners.
Wu wrote in a letter to senators last week that residential property owners would see about a 10.4% increase on their next tax bill, or a 5.2% annual increase, if the home rule petition is passed. Without it, they would see an estimated 21% hike, or a 10.5% annual increase.
The original home rule petition passed the state House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate, largely due to concerns from the business and real estate communities that it would hurt commercial property owners at a time when they were already struggling.
Wu met with business groups to draft a second, compromise version of the bill, which passed the City Council in October and the House last month.
She pressed for the bill to be put on a fast track for approval so tax rates could be finalized on time, saying in November that it would need to pass by Dec. 4.
But last week, Sen. Nick Collins, D-1st Suffolk, delayed the Senate vote twice, saying Dec. 2 that he wanted to first see the certified tax valuations.
After those numbers were released publicly, he again delayed the vote on Dec. 5, saying he wanted more time for analysis of the numbers.
Collins and others in the Senate and in the business community claimed the Department of Revenue-certified valuations showed that Wu’s initial estimates of the increase in homeowners’ tax bills were overblown.
Even some of the business groups who had worked on the second, compromise bill backed out at the end of last week, saying the tax shift was unnecessary.
On Monday, Collins pushed the Senate vote a third time, repeating the argument that the bill was not needed.
“Estimates by city officials have been far off the mark,” he said, MassLive previously reported.. “We believe it is fair and prudent to allow the time to digest that data and speak to our constituents, stakeholders and colleagues to determine whether this home-rule is necessary.”
Wu has pushed back on these arguments, saying in her letter to senators last week that the average annual tax increase for a single-family home over the past decade has been about 5%, less than half of the estimate for 2025.
But opponents, including Spilka, said the change could hurt the economic viability of the whole state, not just Boston.
The Senate president said in her statement Monday that while senators were aware of affordability issues and the concerns of homeowners, they had helped pass other legislation to help address those challenges, including the $5.1 billion housing bond bill signed into law in August and a major tax relief package that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Before Spilka declared her intention not to bring up the bill again Monday night, a city spokesperson released a short statement saying they were “waiting for clarity” on whether it would be brought to a vote.
The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.
