South Boston Democrat blocks Michelle Wu’s tax shift bill in Senate for second time

A South Boston Democrat blocked a proposal from Mayor Michelle Wu that would shift more tax burden onto the commercial and business sectors a day after city officials said they had started circulating key data to lawmakers on property valuations in Boston.

For the second time this week, Sen. Nick Collins used a procedural tactic Thursday to punt consideration of a time-sensitive tax reclassification bill. It comes as Boston officials are racing to send out tax bills to residents and businesses by early next month and as Wu has said the measure is necessary to prevent a hike in residential tax payments.

Collins said he wanted more time to digest new tax data.

In a letter to state senators sent Thursday morning, Wu said the legislation is necessary to “stabilize tax bills across both sectors and prevent potential worst-case scenarios over the next three years.”

“Without this home-rule authorization, the average single-family homeowner receiving a residential exemption will see a 21% increase in their tax bill in January over their last quarterly bill, or an annual increase of 10.5% compared to 2024,” Wu wrote in the letter.

Wu had initially been projecting steeper quarterly spikes of 33% when proposing the legislation last March and 28% just this past October, raising questions about the continued need for a bill she’s touted as preventing a steep tax hike for homeowners, and the bill’s timing, given that it is occurring alongside the mayor’s bid for reelection.

The legislation would lower the quarterly bill-to-bill tax hike in January to roughly 10.4% for the average single-family homeowner, Wu wrote.

The 10.5% annual increase without the legislation, a figure that along with the latest quarterly projection was finalized on Wednesday night, is lower than the 14% annual spike the mayor’s team was projecting earlier this fall, and in line with the 9% average increase in the past several years. The legislation would lower that uptick to about 5.2%, far lower the average yearly spike.

Collins’ efforts to delay action on the Boston tax shift bill comes after he received thousands in donations over the last two months from executives in the real estate, construction, development, and hospitality industries, according to state campaign finance filings.

The Democrat from South Boston’s Seventh Street pulled in more than $27,000 in November and upwards of $22,000 in October — a majority of which came from officials in those industries who may have an interest in the tax measure before the Senate, state records show.

Collins said he blocked the bill earlier this week because he had not yet received certified property valuation data from city officials, a data point the Wu administration previously said they would hand out earlier this fall.

A spokesperson for Wu said city officials started sharing the certified property valuations Wednesday after the Department of Revenue stamped their approval on the numbers.

The valuations, which led to the reduced tax hike projections for homeowners shared by the mayor in her letter to the Senate, show a lower year-over-year increase in residential values and less of a dip in commercial values than projected by the city in October.

While the final numbers are less dramatic, the mayor told senators that the city’s earlier projections had simply been in anticipation of a “worst-case scenario” of a 28% quarterly spike and 14% annual increase for the average single-family home.

The valuations being “within the range” of the city’s preliminary estimates, are proof in the city’s mind that the “proposed legislation is necessary to stabilize tax bills across both sectors and prevent worst-case scenarios over the next three years,” Wu wrote.

But Collins is not the first lawmaker to block the bill nor the only senator who has raised concerns, public or privately, about the legislation.

Rep. David DeCoste, a Norwell Republican, used procedural tactics twice last month to delay the bill’s path forward in the House after he said he heard concerns from residents in his district who own commercial properties in Boston.

The chamber ultimately approved the measure and shipped it over to the Senate after DeCoste did not attend a third session because of a death in his family.

Wu has argued that the tax bill is necessary to fend off a nearly 30% jump in January bills for residential taxpayers, a spike that she has said would be “devastating not only for our residents but for all of Boston’s businesses that rely on our residents as customers.”

“We all know that for our city to thrive, our economy has to thrive. We need great jobs in our city. We need a healthy workforce, and we need residents to have enough money in their pockets at the end of every month to be able to go out and support our businesses and enjoy all that our city has to offer,” Wu said at a legislative hearing in November.

This is a developing story…