State Senator William Brownsberger is knocking a pending proposal from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to temporarily tax commercial properties past the legal limit as “opening the door to burdening businesses all across the state,” adding another, local voice of criticism against a measure the increasingly popular mayor has campaigned for for more than a year.
Brownsberger, the Senate’s president pro tempore, is the Senate’s third-ranking member.
Wu has said the proposal, whose deadline for action is fast approaching, is necessary to help ease the pressure of residential tax hikes brought on by drops in commercial property values. Boston has historically taxed residential properties at lower rates than commercial ones, resulting in businesses providing a greater portion of overall city tax money.
Wu administration officials have projected that without legislative intervention raising commercial taxes, single-family homeowners would see a 13% increase in their annual bills. With a little over 30,000 across the city, single-family homes represent Boston’s second-largest type of residential property. The biggest portion of residential property, about 74,000, are condos.
But Brownsberger said the city’s longtime balance between residential and commercial taxes should remain in place to help businesses with financial planning and give them a sense of equity.
“I don’t think it’s good for the downtown area of Boston to say, ‘Okay, your property values are going down, and because they’re going down, we’re going to increase your tax rate.’ That doesn’t make sense to me, doesn’t strike me as good policy on a statewide basis,” he told GBH News.
Brownsberger also said he has already received preliminary inquiries from city officials in other places about whether they could get legislative approval to tax businesses beyond the legal limit.
“I want the business community to be able to rely on a limit on the extend to which they’re taxed,” he added. “I think that’s an important thing for Massachusetts from an economic development standpoint.”
Brownsberger’s comments come as Wu has attempted to renew debate about her tax proposal one year after the state Senate shut it down through a procedural objection from South Boston senator Nick Collins. It also comes as the window to act without disrupting Boston’s 2026 tax schedule tightens with tax bills set to be mailed in early January.
Wu has taken to social media to encourage residents to contact their lawmakers. Several local labor groups, including the Boston Teachers Union, the Greater Boston Labor Council and AFSCME Council 93, spoke out in support of Wu’s proposal this week in a press conference ahead of a city council hearing on Boston setting its tax rates.
Darlene Lombos, president of the Greater Boston Labor Council said Monday that her members are preparing to be financially squeezed.
“We’re all just bracing ourselves for the increase in taxes on top of all the other problems that we’re seeing given this administration and all of the federal cuts that are happening,” she said, pointing to Trump administration cuts in infrastructure and more potential cuts in education.
“People think that the tax structure is just a bunch of numbers, and really those numbers are real people on the ground with families trying to make ends meet, really working hard to make Boston the great city that it is,” said Lombos. “It is really important for people not to just see these percentages and increases, but to think about the families and the impact on real human beings.”
Brownsberger conceded that “everybody’s feeling financial pressure,” but added: “In that context, maybe it’s time for the city to look at the growth rates in its spending.”
The senator, whose district includes Allston-Brighton and Fenway, says he supports taking care of the most vulnerable tax payers, like seniors.
“What we don’t want to do is further market distortion and hit businesses that are already suffering a free fall as a result of COVID work from home and so forth,” he said.
Wu has asked city departments to reduce their budgets for the new fiscal year.
The issue has triggered fissure among Boston’s senate delegation, with State Senator Liz Miranda voicing support in contrast to Collins and Brownsberger.
“Working families, longtime homeowners, and low-income seniors in my district are already facing rising costs, and my district is impacted disproportionately by the lack of action on this petition,” said Miranda in a recent statement, adding that she would support the proposal through a formal vote.
“While I recognize that this is not a long-term solution to our problem, it is a solution and a tool that we have now to deliver relief to residents from another sharp increase in property taxes,” she added. “Delaying action creates uncertainty for families who are struggling right now.”
Others in the Boston delegation, including Sens. Sal DiDomenico, Lydia Edwards, and Michael F. Rush, did not immediately respond to GBH News’ request for comment on the measure, which has sat waiting for action by the legislature’s joint revenue committee since March.
