Massachusetts senators delayed action on a controversial bill allowing the City of Boston to temporarily reconfigure the way it splits its property taxes between commercial and residential taxpayers.
Senate President Karen Spilka originally said she intends to surface the controversial bill during Monday's session, after a previous version of the bill stalled in that chamber. Beacon Hill Democrats, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and leaders of four business groups since brokered new compromise language that got local approval and passed through the House last month.
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After months of public and private talks, Sen. Nick Collins of South Boston used a procedural maneuver to punt the matter until the Senate meets again on Thursday.
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Wu and the Boston City Council have pushed for the bill's passage to mitigate the extent of coming increases in residential property taxes, while critics of the bill say the city should pull back on spending and be more mindful of tax impacts on commercial real estate owners and the struggles that sector faces due to post-pandemic changes.
Though senators adopted an unusual rule earlier this year to allow them to take roll call votes on certain bills during the stretch of informal sessions between August and January, that rule will not apply to the Boston tax bill. It only allows for roll calls on bills in conference committees -- a route this piece of legislation did not take.
Wu has said the tax shift bill would need to be done by late November to prevent Boston residents from getting a bill that includes a hike.
"Tax bills are issued to property owners on January 1, but there's a lot of work that leads up to that. So in order for our team to use this mechanism and prepare bills for that deadline and for the [Department of Revenue] certification and City Council approval and all those steps, we would need this law signed by the governor within the next two weeks," Wu said at a legislative hearing on Nov. 20.
Two weeks from that date is Wednesday, Dec. 4.
