December 11, 2024
City councillors made quick work Wednesday of setting Boston's property tax rates for 2025 after a months-long campaign to shift the balance beyond normal limits collapsed in the Senate.
The city council voted unanimously to set the residential tax rate at $11.58 per $1,000 of value and to set the commercial rate at $25.96 per $1,000 of value. City officials have previously said residents would be in line for an average annual property tax increase of 10.5 percent.
Councillor Brian Worrell, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, said the city would once again offer the maximum residential exemption allowed by state law, or up to $3,984 for eligible homeowners.
The vote capped a lengthy and unsuccessful effort by Mayor Michelle Wu and her deputies to secure state approval to temporarily push a greater share of the city's property tax burden onto commercial owners, which supporters said would spread out a spike set to affect residential bills.
The measure twice cleared the House, but died in the Senate this week after updated estimates indicated the impact on residents without action would not be as significant as previously thought.
Worrell was the only member of the council to speak about the topic, describing the vote as "the same thing this council and administration has done for decades."
"This all falls under current state law," he said of the plan approved Wednesday. "If the state wants to change those laws, this body already has an income-eligible senior tax exemption petition at the State House that can be taken up. If they are seeking a way to work on targeted tax relief for homeowners, we also have that: it's the home rule petition that was just declared dead."
Councillor Erin Murphy on Wednesday also filed a new proposed home rule petition that would give the city permission to further increase its residential property tax exemption from 35 percent to 40 percent.
"It is a direct response to the economic pressures that we are all hearing from our residents that we know they are facing," Murphy said.