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Why I opposed Mayor Wu’s tax proposal – The Boston Globe

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Why I opposed Mayor Wu’s tax proposal – The Boston Globe


Earlier this year, when a study produced by Tufts University’s Center for State Policy Analysis suggested Boston reevaluate how it finances government services, city officials pushed back, initially dismissing concerns and defending exponential spending increases. That defensiveness, though, quickly shifted to panicked claims of a dire economic scenario and prompted Mayor Michelle Wu to seek legislative approval to raise taxes on businesses more than state law allows. Such an abrupt and dramatic about-face was notable, to say the least.

The Wu administration then went on to suggest that residents would see a 33 percent increase in their taxes and risk losing their homes if this new tax increase did not pass the City Council and the Legislature. For months, city officials escalated their rhetoric, while refusing to share official data that would, in fact, show that Boston’s fiscal issues were not unmanageable. Even if the business tax hike passed, the city still planned to raise residential taxes by 9 percent in 2025, just as it did in 2024. Residential relief was never on the table.

The City Council and the House of Representatives passed the legislation without the city’s official valuation data, so I called for a pause in the Senate until the city disclosed the data. Upon their release, the data showed that the economic sky was not falling. They also showed that lawmakers did not have to accept the false choice of having to risk cratering the Boston economy to mitigate a spike in residential property taxes.

Ample due diligence is required to make informed public policy decisions. Matters that impact residents and businesses must be debated based on objective data and facts — not guesswork, conjecture, or political agendas.

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When this matter came before the Senate at the end of its formal session this summer, I made my concerns known. It was clear that downtown businesses were not the only entities that would have suffered disproportionately under the city’s proposed tax increase. Small businesses would have suffered just as much, if not more.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, raising commercial tax rates beyond the current state limit is “not good public policy.” Doing so raises “constitutional issues” and poses “an impediment to attracting and retaining business.”

There are other tax relief options, such as increasing exemptions for homeowners, low-income residents, and seniors. Working together with Governor Maura Healey, the Legislature did exactly that this session by passing the largest tax relief package in a generation along with sweeping housing and economic development legislation. The tax relief package includes significant increases to the Child and Family Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit.

We did this collaboratively while also increasing wages for state employees, improving the Commonwealth’s bond rating, and managing a 2.7 percent growth in our budget while providing record levels of local aid to Boston. Boston, on the other hand, grew its budget 8 percent year over year — a total of $350 million — and 21 percent over the past three years.

What this 10-month process has shown is that City Hall must be more transparent and demonstrate fiscal restraint — not pile more costs onto residents and businesses. To provide residential tax relief, the mayor and City Council should increase the maximum residential exemption from 35 percent to 40 percent.

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The city could pay for this by:

▪ Drawing from the surplus rainy day fund without impacting the city’s bond rating, per the recent Moody’s report;

▪ Redirecting funds generated via the Article 80 process from the Bluebikes program to residential relief;

▪ Cutting redundant external programs;

▪ Executing other prudent but targeted cuts like the governor did in mid-fiscal 2024 to balance the state budget.

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Whether taxes go up on Boston residents or by how much is strictly up to the mayor and the City Council. Like the state, the city can provide relief for taxpayers, stimulate economic growth, and balance a budget. But it requires being data driven and fiscally responsible.

There’s still time to do so. For the sake of Boston’s taxpayers and the city’s fiscal health, I hope they take the time to get it right. Because it’s clear: the numbers don’t lie.

Nick Collins is state senator for the First Suffolk District in Boston.





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Boston, MA

First Alert: Mix of snow and rain today, then looking ahead to warmer weather

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First Alert: Mix of snow and rain today, then looking ahead to warmer weather


Today is a First Alert weather day. A system to our south is pushing mix of snow and rain into southern New England through this evening and tonight. 

For us here in Greater Boston, expect snow to continue spreading over our area through the afternoon/evening commute. In fact, parts our area could see up to 1 to 2 inches of snow accumulation before the sleet and rain move in.

Much of Greater Boston will likely see snow amounts on the lower end. Higher snow amounts are expected toward southern New Hampshire and along and north of outer Route 2. Also, some ice accumulations are possible, up to a tenth of an inch, creating a thin glaze here and there.

Dozens of schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts have already announced early dismissals as a result of the storm.

While this system won’t cripple our area, conditions could still create a mess on the roads during the evening commute through tonight. Be careful while driving. A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect for parts of our area through early Wednesday morning. High temperatures will be in the mid to upper 30s today. Overnight lows will drop into the low 30s.

We’ll wake up to patchy fog Wednesday morning before the sun returns. High temperatures will be in the upper 40s. We’ll stay in the 40s on Thursday with increasing clouds. But by late Thursday night into Friday, wet weather returns. Some snow could mix with the rain into Friday morning. Highs will be in the upper 30s Friday.

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Warmer weather is expected this weekend. Highs will be in the 50s Saturday and possibly near 60 on Sunday.



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Boston police officials dominate the list of highest-paid city workers in 2025 – The Boston Globe

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Boston police officials dominate the list of highest-paid city workers in 2025 – The Boston Globe


That was more than what every other city department spent on overtime combined, though it was a slight drop from the $103 million the police department spent on overtime in 2024.

High overtime spending inside the police department has long been controversial and a source of frustration for police-reform advocates. Last year’s nine-figure total comes as Mayor Michelle Wu warns of a challenging budget season to come for the city, which is grappling with inflation and the possibility of more federal funding cuts.

In a December letter, Wu told the city council that she instructed city department heads to find ways to cut 2 percent of their budgets in the next fiscal year. She also imposed a delay on new hires. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper has also proposed cutting somewhere between 300 and 400 positions next fiscal year due to budget constraints.

Overall, the city spent about $2.5 billion on employee salaries in 2025, up around 1.5 percent from $2.4 billion in 2024. The city employs roughly 21,000 workers, according to a public dashboard.

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In a statement, Emma Pettit, a spokesperson for Wu’s office, attributed the payroll increase to raises, and in some cases, employees receiving retroactive pay, that were part of contracts the city negotiated with its various labor unions.

“We’re grateful to our city employees for their hard work to hold Boston to the highest standard for delivering city services,” Pettit said.

When Wu won her first mayoral race in November 2021, all of the city’s 44 union contracts had expired. Since then, Wu’s office has negotiated new agreements with all of them, and last year, agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union.

But as the city heads back to the bargaining table to negotiate extensions or new contracts with others, city leaders should keep cost at the forefront of those conversations, said Steve Poftak, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-backed budget watchdog group.

“As budgets tighten, I’m hopeful that it increases the scrutiny on these collective bargaining agreements,” Poftak said.

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The top earner on the city’s payroll last year was Boston Police Captain Timothy Connolly. In addition to his $194,000 base salary, Connolly took home nearly $230,000 in overtime, about $26,000 in undefined “other pay,” and roughly $49,000 as part of a higher-education bonus, for a total of $498,145 in compensation.

Skipper, as BPS superintendent, was the 55th-highest earner among city workers, coming behind 54 members of the police department. She made a total of $378,000 in 2025.

Nearly 300 city employees made more than $300,000 last year. In contrast, Wu made $207,000, though her salary increased to $250,000 this year. More than 1,700 city employees made more than the mayor in 2025.

Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, argued that the high overtime costs in the police department are, in part, a result of understaffing.

The department is short roughly 400 rank-and-file police officers, Calderone said, meaning the department has to pay its staff to work overtime and fill vacant shifts. The average salary for an officer in the BPPA is roughly $195,000, Calderone said.

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With several large events approaching, including a Boston-based fan fest around this summer’s World Cup matches and the return of a fleet of tall ships to Boston Harbor, Calderone said most of the members of his union are likely to be working the maximum allowable 90 hours a week.

“We just don’t have the bodies on the street,” he said.

The Boston Police Department and the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation — the union that represents the department’s sergeants, captains, and lieutenants — did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.

Jamarhl Crawford, an activist and former member of the Boston Police Reform Task Force, said while high spending on overtime is not new for the police department, it’s a pressing problem the city should tackle.

The police and fire departments are “essential components of the city and society in general … [and] folks should be getting a fair wage. But it also has to be within fiscal responsibility,” Crawford said.

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“In another 10 years,” he continued, “with pensions and everything else, this type of thing can bankrupt the city.”


Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold. Yoohyun Jung can be reached at y.jung@globe.com.





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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing

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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing


FORT MYERS, Fla. — Johan Oviedo’s first outing of the spring last week didn’t go great, as the right-hander walked three over 1 2/3 innings in a performance manager Alex Cora described as “erratic.”

His second outing on Monday went much better.



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