Small Property Owners Strike Back Against Mayor Wu’s Business Tax Increase
Small property owners are pleading with the Boston City Council to reject Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposal to increase business taxes.
The Boston City Council’s Government Operations and its Ways and Means committees held hearings on four property tax proposals on Monday, Jan. 27, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s latest effort to reallocate more of the city’s tax burden from residents onto businesses and investigate the city’s home assessment procedures.
Senators argue that raising taxes on businesses would have a negative effect as companies continue to navigate their way in the current business climate following the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Boston 25 News.
“Property owners are receiving questionable tax bills which raise serious questions about the city’s assessment process. Boston’s property valuations are all over the place, and lower-value properties are being grossly over-assessed, hurting the very people Mayor Wu claims to want to help,” said SPOA Vice President Amir Shahsavari.
Boston Democrat Sen. Nick Collins was the first to attempt to publicly stop Wu’s earlier proposed version of the legislation in the Senate.
On Monday, Wu said she hadn’t received feedback from Beacon Hill about her tax shift plan. Her comments came just before a City Council committee hearing propelled City Hall’s efforts to push a new home rule petition through the Legislature.
When asked on Monday if she received information from the Legislature about the tax package she filed on Jan. 13, Wu declined to comment.
“We’re still working through the process. I mean, I think in general, different entities want to see others take it up first,” she said in a NBC 10 Boston report. “And so we’re working through the City Council piece once again, and hope for swift action there, because in order to implement the compromise that we had struck for this current tax year, it has to be done before bills go out in April.”