Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's property tax reclassification plan advanced in the House Thursday but not enough representatives showed up for session, enabling a South Shore Republican with concerns about the plan's impacts on the business community to delay action on the bill.
The home rule petition was rushed through a pair of committees and received an initial vote of approval in the House before Rep. David DeCoste, of Norwell, doubted the presence of a quorum. With only around five members in the chamber, the House had to adjourn immediately, according to its rules, to reconvene on Friday morning.
A quorum in the 160-seat House is currently 79 members because there are three vacant seats. The current House roster features 132 Democrats, 24 Republicans, and one unenrolled representative.
"Specifically, my problem with the tax bill, among other things, is I think what they're talking about specifically will cripple real estate, and will cripple the local economy," DeCoste told reporters after adjournment.
Wu was on Beacon Hill on Wednesday pitching the Joint Revenue Committee on the revised petition, which would enable the city to temporarily shift more of the capital city's property tax burden onto commercial payers. She told the panel that her plan would need to become law in the next couple of weeks in order to have an effect on January 2025 tax bills, and reduce projected residential tax hikes.
Both the Revenue Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee gave favorable reports to the bill on Thursday morning ahead of the House session, but the session ended before the House could vote to send the bill to the Senate.
"I did it on my own," DeCoste said when asked whether he made the objection at the behest of caucus leadership.
The five-term lawmaker said he "made commitments" to constituents from his South Shore district, which includes Norwell, Hanover, Rockland, and Hanson.
He was convinced, he said, by business leaders, property owners, local chambers of commerce, and the South Shore Chamber of Commerce, who all "made a very convincing case ... that they are going to be suffering inordinately and this could have significant negative economic consequences to the state."
"This tax increase would have huge impacts not only on the city of Boston but on the entire Commonwealth," DeCoste said in a press statement issued later in the day by MassGOP. "My constituents have a vested interest in Boston thriving as it's a major business hub for the state. Overburdening commercial real estate with tax increases will inevitably lead to foreclosures, and there's no doubt about that. We already have vacancy rates averaging over 40% in properties that are highly leveraged. The majority of the legislature quietly agrees with this concern, even if they won't say it out loud."
Wu announced the redrafted petition on Oct. 23, calling it a compromise and outlining support from four business leaders: Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce CEO James Rooney, Boston Municipal Research Bureau Interim President Martha Walz, NAIOP CEO Tamara Small, and Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation Doug Howgate.
It is unclear if Democrats will turn out in bigger numbers to muscle the bill through on Friday. If they do not, DeCoste could again try to delay the bill's advancement.
"We'll see," he told reporters.
The Norwell Republican said many of his colleagues, in both branches and both parties, share his reservations about the bill. After talking with reporters outside the House Chamber, he hustled across the building and entered Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr's office.
"I think the real estate community, specifically ... those not class A property owners, I think have made a really convincing case that they will be destroyed by this," he said.
At Wednesday's Revenue Committee hearing, Wu's testimony was immediately followed by a panel discussion sponsored by DeCoste featuring members of the Small Property Owners Association (SPOA).
One member, Chris Lehman, said that raising taxes on the Boston commercial property base in the current fiscal environment is "both practically and morally misguided."
"It flies in the face of basic economic logic and the moral justification for taxation," Lehman said.
Another SPOA member, Shlomo Pinkas, called it an unbalanced proposal with ramifications on building valuations. He forecast future action coming before the Appellate Tax Board, the independent quasi-judicial body that hears appeals in tax valuation cases.
"The Appellate Tax Board is about to come down on the City of Boston, on values -- not the assessed rate for commercial rates, but the values of the buildings. And on maybe the non-A properties, they will drop by more than half," said Pinkas.
Shortly before Wu began testifying Wednesday in a downstairs hearing room, the Governor's Council was interviewing members of the Appellate Tax Board, over whom councilors have appointing authority.
Councilor Joseph Ferreira, a Democrat from Swansea, was curious enough about the Boston tax plan to ask ATB Commissioner Steven Elliott about it.
"Is there any prediction about what's going to happen when Boston, if Boston, does that commercial rate hike? Are you guys going to get slammed?" the South Coast Democrat asked Elliott.
"Probably. Probably," replied Elliott, a Boston resident.
