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macconbonner.bsky.social
Maccon Bonner
@macconbonner.bsky.social
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Reposted by Maccon Bonner
mayorwu.boston.gov
High housing costs are the greatest threat to our competitiveness and years of residential property tax increases compound this threat. I’m fighting to protect residents and stabilize taxes.

I just wrote to Boston's business community asking for their support of our residential tax relief plan. 🧵
Steve, Jim, Tamara, and Doug: I write with an update on this year’s City of Boston property tax valuations, following last year’s good faith effort to partner in delivering balanced, reasonable residential tax relief so that the businesses you represent would benefit from excellent city services and greater stability for the Boston residents who are your community, workforce, and customer base. As you recall, in early 2024, the City projected significant increases to residential taxes as a result of declining commercial values. We worked proactively to cushion this impact by proposing a revenue-neutral, temporary measure that Boston had successfully implemented in the past with legislative approval and business community support. Working together over weeks of negotiations, your organizations agreed to a three-year compromise, stating that you were “proud that we worked with Mayor Wu to reach a resolution that mitigates short-term property tax increases for residents while avoiding significant new burdens on commercial properties. ” The legislation was passed twice by the Boston City Council and the State House of Representatives, but ultimately did not receive a vote before the State Senate after being procedurally blocked by a single Senator. After that compromise was abandoned by your groups and the State Senate, Boston residents were left facing a significant tax increase, while the commercial share of the tax burden has never been lower. Your organizations suggested that the final property valuations were not as dire as the worst case scenarios presented, although they landed squarely within the range of estimates presented throughout the process. Your coalition had anchored the compromise to a shared goal of protecting residents from double-digit annual tax increases, targeting a threshold of 9% increases. Yet after you withdrew support for our compromise, the average single family homeowner had to bear a 10.4% increase (alt text limit reached) the average single family homeowner. This is why we proposed a five-year residential tax relief measure (compromising down to a three-year measure), anticipating that this multi-year transition would require multi-year protection for residents. With taxes for the average single family home projected to be up 34% from 2023 to 2026, Boston residents are facing serious financial hardship. Meanwhile, the tax bill for the average Class A office tower is projected to decrease by 4.4%, or $210,000. If the Legislature fails to act on our pending home-rule petition, the share of the City’s tax levy paid by commercial property owners will fall to 53.9%, the lowest level since Proposition 2½ passed 45 years ago. Residents will shoulder an even greater share of the tax levy, matching the predictions we made one year ago. We are all doing our part to ensure fiscal responsibility in uncertain times. In April, our administration put forward a constrained City budget that limited overall budget growth in FY26 to 4.4% (and just 1.7% growth for City departments), with reductions equivalent to 500 positions. As we prepare for another fiscal year with significant economic uncertainty, the City will continue to limit and further reduce expenditures in the upcoming budget cycle. The high cost of housing is the greatest threat to our regional and statewide competitiveness in today’s economy, and years of significant residential property tax increases compound this threat. Our administration has made historic progress on producing affordable housing units and boosting homeownership, reduced commercial vacancies, converted underutilized office space to housing, and invested our budget responsibly in city services and initiatives that have maintained our AAA bond rating and helped Boston consistently rank highly on quality of life indexes. However, allowing continued double-digit residential property tax increases threatens to weaken our economic prospects and our (alt text limit reached)
December 3, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Maccon Bonner
mayorwu.boston.gov
We’re fighting to lower residential property taxes in Boston and need your help.

Go to malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator to contact your state legislators and call on them to pass our plan for tax relief.
December 4, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Maccon Bonner
mayorwu.boston.gov
It’s tiiiiiime ✨

We’ll see you this weekend for Boston’s annual Enchanted Trolley Tour! Visit boston.gov/enchantedtrolley to see when the Trolley is coming to your neighborhood.
An image of Mayor Wu switching a "Happy Holidays" lever on next to Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus on the Enchanted Trolley. Text reads: Mayor Michelle Wu's Enchanted Trolley Tour and Tree Lightings. Saturday, December 6 & Sunday, December 6. boston.gov/enchanted-trolley An image with a green background and details of the Enchanted Trolley stops written. An image of Santa and Mrs. Claus with several children is at the bottom. Text reads: Enchanted Trolley Tour and Tree Lightings Saturday, December 6. 11 a.m. Hastings Lot, West Roxbury 12 p.m. Wolcott Square, Readville 1 p.m. Mattapan Square 2 p.m. Hyde Square, Jamaica Plain 3 p.m. J.P. Monument, Jamaica Plain 3:45 p.m. Brigham Circle, Mission Hill 4:30 p.m. Bolling Building, Roxbury 5:45 p.m. Blackstone Square, South End 6:45 p.m. Oak Square, Brighton Sunday, December 7 12 p.m. Codman Square, Dorchester 1 p.m. Adams Corner, Dorchester 2 p.m. M Street Park, South Boston 3 p.m. Beach Street & Harrison Ave, Chinatown 4 p.m. Paul Revere Mall, North End 5 p.m. Winthrop Square, Charlestown 6:15 p.m. Maverick Square, East Boston
December 4, 2025 at 11:00 PM