Call to Action: What Did the Mayor Know, and When Did She Know It?
Dear SPOA Members and Supporters
Last week, newly certified tax projections from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) revealed that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's calculations for justifying her tax shift proposal were way off the mark. This will have dangerous consequences for Boston and the rest of our state if her bill passes in the state legislature.
The mayor previously had us believe that there must be a tax increase due to an inevitable budget imbalance, even though she refused to curtail city spending. Her plan, if passed by the state legislature, would crush the city's beleaguered commercial sector to balance her bloated budget, impacting both Boston residents and others outside the city running businesses in the Hub. The mayor even pressured a few business leaders to accept a "compromise" version of her plan that did not actually deviate from her original plan in any meaningful way. This left Mayor Wu in the convenient position of having her cake, while eating it too.
However, the numbers now reveal that the situation is far better than the mayor projected. If her tax bill does not pass, residential taxpayers, who already pay among the lowest residential tax rates in the state, will see an annual increase of 11%, which is in line with past years, and commercial rates will remain unchanged. Therefore, the mayor's highly controversial tax shift plan won't even be necessary.
Once the news hit last week, the business leaders, who had been pressured to cooperate with the mayor, withdrew their support for the tax shift "compromise," while the Massachusetts Senate tabled further consideration of the mayor's proposal until this coming week, beginning on Monday, December 9, at 11 AM.
While we thank the officials who asked for a pause in considering the mayor's tax shift plan, we demand answers to some key questions. Based on the newly released and certified DOR numbers, we know that there is no need for a Boston home rule petition to change existing tax law, which impacts our entire state. So why did Mayor Wu lead us down the wrong path? Why did she make demands and push negotiations to hike taxes on our most vulnerable sector, the business community, as well as Boston residents, to avoid a crisis that didn't exist? What did the mayor know, and when did she know it?
We must not allow the city to play politics ahead of an election year to the detriment of Boston and the rest of Massachusetts. As mentioned by Scott Van Voorhis, Boston is both the state capital and the region's economic hub. State lawmakers from across the state should be concerned about anything that could negatively impact Boston's commercial real estate market and economy.
Please contact your state senators and tell them to reject the mayor's tax shift proposal. You can contact them by using the following link:
https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
SPOA's response to the newly released figures was also covered by State House News Service and Mass Live. You can read more by accessing those articles below:
Boston tax shift Senate vote delayed for second time this week
Sincerely,
Small Property Owners Association (SPOA)
