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Nick Collins once again blocks action on Boston property-tax measure
By adamg on Thu, 12/05/2024 - 12:52pm
The South Boston state senator once again used a parliamentary procedure to keep the state Senate from voting on a measure that would let Boston temporarily increase the property-tax rate on commercial property higher than otherwise allowed, which, if he doesn't change his minds, means the City Council will have to set tax rates on Wednesday that will mean tax hikes of between 10% and 14% for residential property owners, the State House News Service reports.
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Comments
Little Nicky has his eye on
Little Nicky has his eye on Lynch's seat and thinks this is going to win him South Shore support.
If the commercial property tax rate goes up
Won't the landlords pass the additional costs onto renters who are already strapped for cash.
No
Because their property is taxed at the residential rate, not the commercial rate.
The people of the
The people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts reserve the power to recall any elected officer holding a state, county, or district elected office. Recall elections allow voters to remove an elected officer prior to the expiration of said officer's term.
Initiative Petition for a Proposed Constitutional Recall ...
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&u...
You Would Lose
Dot is getting more progressive but did you look at the electoral map from last month?
The Blue Line would be in Lynn before Nick Collins would be recalled.
Again
Who does Nick Collins represent? The people that live in his district? Or the big landlords that write him checks?
He’s sticking it to Wu
Who he perceives as sticking it to people in his district on several fronts. Wu and friends have declared war on middle class whites in Dorchester and South Boston. You reap what you sow.
His constituents want him to stick it to Wu. And some of them are also concerned about the effect of harming real estate development and office occupancy downtown. Given that Wu provided inflated numbers to the business community to entice them into this deal, it’s a good thing that the process is being delayed so a fair resolution can be worked out.
citation needed
y'all are never going to get over that Christmas party lol
That’s a key question: who is
That’s a key question: who is Wu really?
I don’t know enough to answer my question: is Wu just a shill for gentrifiers? Is housing just a Trojan Horse to lubricate the progress of billionaires?
Boston is not built for growth. Boston needs to nature its ancient virtues, and to raise strong citizens who go off and do good in the country.
If you build it they will come and it will be an overcrowded hellscape.
The country has enough dense, overcrowded metropoli, but we only have one New England, one Boston.
Boston was vibrant and successful with 100000 more people
The problem we have is too many cars.
It is a very warped sense that people that were born here during 80's, when the city had emptied out. There miles of one story shops that used to be row houses.
The people of his district
The people of his district love this shit.
They hate all the Richie riches and “outsiders” they believe have taken over Boston. Until they get stuck w higher property taxes. But they’ll blame that uppity outsider before they blame little Nicky or Ray and Kathy’s boy (Ed Flynn for you Richie Rich outsidahs).
But is he right?
From a quick read of Collins’ statement, I don’t know that he’s not correct that the city is making bad assumptions and /ot lacking transparency.
That said, he may also be getting loads of campaign contributions from the real estate industry…
So is Wu
She takes plenty of donations from developers, it's all public knowledge
Why blame the senator?
Why are you blaming the senator? If is not this senator who raised taxes. It is Michelle Wu, who caused this issue by raising the city’s spending by 8%.
The root cause of the current fiasco is Michelle Wu’s spending increase above beyond the city’s revenue collection requiring tax increase. This bill does nothing to resolve the root cause of this issue. All this bill does is temporarily shift a portion of the tax increase above and beyond the state law from residential property owners to commercial property owners. The property taxes are going to spike for residents regardless whether this bill passes or not. I am not sure why there is no outrage towards the mayor.
Math
I don’t see how an “8% increase in spending,” even if it’s all charged to next year’s property taxes (highly doubtful), translates to a 21% or more increase in residential property taxes. That’s because it doesn’t. The increase is due to a radical shift in commercial vs residential property values. It has more to do with post-Covid working-from-home and the related drop in office space demand. Wu’s solution is to take this new imbalance and spread it out over a few years. We have no idea if working from home will be as widespread in 5 years as it is now. For the sake of downtown Boston and all cities in the US, I hope it doesn’t, but we’ll have to see how it plays out. Meanwhile it makes sense to buffer the impact on Boston homeowners.
Wu
Can't Wu cut the expenses?
Sure, if the City Council agrees
So where, exactly, does one cut the city budget? And keep in mind that most of the city budget consists of salaries.
Ed Flynn, the champion of budget cutting, wants to increase the police budget and hire more cops.
Oh, right, cut school busing, which is roughly $170 million this year, only you can't just stop busing completely because a) much of it goes for special-needs kids who need specialized classes that aren't provided at every school and because the city is required to provide busing for charter schools. But sure, let's make 2nd graders walk two or three miles to school or take the T (middle- and high-schoolers get CharlieCards).
But let's say you could just completely get rid of all school busing. The city has a total budget of around $3 billion. $170 million alone isn't going to do it. But you're not going to completely eliminate busing.
Oh, I know! Bike lanes! Yes, bike lanes are surely costing billions upon billions of dollars.
Problem solved.
Senator Nick Collins
It looks like Senator Collins is surpassing Ed Flynn as the villain of the month.
as if
You act as if he isn't doing this on behalf of Flynn...
He’s doing this so Ed can
He’s doing this so Ed can blame Mayah Wu in next year’s Mayorals. Boston residents are just collateral damage.
Good for the challengers
Well, with Nick's help in making the RE tax issue an hotter mess and screwing up escrow accounts across the city, it sure will look like the Kraft kid or the legacy family political party guy would be a better leader for Boston.
maybe if we weren't paying school custodians $80K
we would have less trouble keeping the budget under control. The gravy train is in the process of derailing. Of course the most important thing for the political class is that the defined benefit pension plan is fully funded.
Huh?
So with their next tax bills up 21+%, you say Boston citizens would vote for the right wingers who made that happen? I think not.
Collins is a Democrat
Flynn is a Democrat. Who the fuck is a right winger in this scenario?!
The far left loves to call anyone that doesn’t agree with their extreme policies as ‘right winger’ and it’s going to be their downfall.
Realpolitik is the lesson here
In Boston to run as Republican is to guarrantee a very low probability of election. Not impossible, just improbabl. Therefore it makes the most sense to carry the card of the party affiliation of the party that tends to win elections.
Baltimore City's mayor for life (until he became governor twice and beyond - an addict to political power) Donald Schaefer was a Demorat in name only. His actions were solidly of the thug side of Republicanism (a proto-culture warrior closeted gay man who went out of his way to spread hatred for Baltimore's gay and lesbian citizens).
To be Republican at this time is to work to weaken, harm (and in Trump's case destroy) the nation. Given Collins interfering with the well being of Boston City residents by tacitly supporting higher property taxes (and favoring gigantic and highly profitable corporations that own office buildings (e.g., Boston Properties) Collins sounds much more Republican.
Party affiliation means little when there is virtually only one political party in a city.
As a taxpayer
I would rather not see my bill jump so significantly, but…. But Wu has gone wild doing things at her pace without much input or providing anything of substance. He turned the table on her last week and again today. Honestly his initial request for the certified data was reasonable, COB thought they could slid by without it and were caught. And again now, they decide to release it yesterday and didn’t give enough time to review - soooooo he made the time. Facts are facts, they could have provided the data weeks ago and didn’t. Lay in the bed you made. Ultimately it will pass at the 11.5th hour.
rising rents and home prices...
From the Mayor, "Moreover, as housing costs have risen across the region and the city over the last several years, it is even greater of a threat for Boston residents to bear what would be the second-highest tax increase over the last decade if forced to pay the 10.5% jump without legislation. Rental listing prices have increased nearly 25% between 2019-2023 in Boston, and home sale prices have increased by 13%."
It's almost as if there is nothing that the administration could have done since 2021 to facilitate housing production in Boston, which would mitigate increases in rents and sale prices. Perhaps if they didn't raise the percentage of inclusionary units in a development from 13% to 20%? Or hold off on net zero carbon mandates until after interest rates came down to a point where a project is financially feasible? Nah. Not on brand politically for the Wu train. The buck stops at the Mayor's desk. This was all foreseeable at least two years ago. There should have been a plan in place to trim the budget and to prepare the public for inevitable tax hikes. As opposed to acting like this was something nobody could've seen coming. It's called leadership.
About new housing
The requirement is now 17% citywide, and it only took effect Oct. 1 (it's not retroactive - it won't apply to the 30,000 or so units that have approval but have gone unbuilt). There are some areas with 20% , but in exchange for agreeing to that the developers get approval to build larger buildings than they could otherwise (like along Dorchester Avenue in South Boston).
But if you're going to bring that up, why not also mention the city's program to sell vacant lots at reduced costs in exchange for new residential buildings (drive through Nubian Square for how this is working), the program to rebuild municipal buildings with housing on top of them (for example, the West End library proposal) and, more recently, the city housing loan fund that will loan money to developers at lower rates than they could get on the open market for building new housing.
Kinda funny
People's views on taxes seem to be pretty fluid.
A common view of progressives is that taxes are too low, especially given that property values have appreciated rapidly and a majority of Boston residents are renters who won't pay it directly.
Without a doubt, Collins is an asshole but I'm guessing most of his critics would support a 10%+ property tax increase if it wasn't for this unusual situation.
Say it again.....
I make 225K and live in an 8 room house in Dorchester. I live in a 8 room house in Dorchester, my wife and I are retired, kids moved out, between SS and retirement savings we draw about 85K as and can afford to live. Why is my per thousand rate the same as the 225 guy? Why was this the only plan the city had to address real estate tax issue? Where's plan B and C? How about modest cuts in City Salaries, oh those contracts, modest cuts and modest increase leaves the need to lean on state for help. Everyone needs to pay their fair share, cept when it's u s...
yes
i'm sure the BPPA will go right along with salary decreases. cutting teacher/admin salary is also a great idea and will definitely improve BPS outcomes.
That's not even the biggest
That's not even the biggest problem. This whole tax stuff was already discussed by all sides; the Wu admin and businesses groups literally came to a compromise. Pulling this stunt at the 11th hour is the most frustrating part.
fair
I live in my home and with the exemption, it is a very low rate. 10% won't break me. It will be rough on the commercial rate but they negotiated that. It seems like Collins is just gaming us to get more donations push Flynn up.