BOSTON (State House News Service) — The senator who last year was one of the most vocal opponents of a Boston Mayor Michelle Wu plan to shift property taxes more onto commercial payers said he is friendlier to parts of a new-filed tax relief package meant to temper residential tax spikes through a plan tied to rebates.

"It was welcome news that the mayor and her team put in some of the recommendations we made, such as leveraging the stockpiled surplus fund that has been built up over several decades to leverage for rebates, as well as for expansion of residential exemptions and senior property tax exemptions, which we are supportive of, and that's something that we can do with existing resources that don't require a tax shift or increase in taxes on anybody," Sen. Nick Collins of South Boston said on Jon Keller's Sunday segment on WBZ-TV.

Collins was one of the opponents of Wu's bill last session that would have shifted more of the tax burden onto commercial taxpayers, which are seeing a drop in taxes due, to offset increases residents are seeing in their tax bills. Wu's team projected that residential property tax bills in Boston will increase by an average 10.4% annually in 2025 as the city's budget has grown and Beacon Hill did not agree to the mayor's plan.

The Boston City Council sent Wu's new plan (HD 4422) to Beacon Hill in February and it is currently before the House Committee on Rules.

It returned to the compromise that she reached with business groups last fall, to set the fiscal year 2025 tax rate to allow a maximum commercial shift of 181.5% in fiscal year 2025. That's in excess of state law that allows cities and towns to push the commercial rate as high as 175% of what a single, unified rate would have been.

However, the mayor built into the new legislation a March 1 deadline for lawmakers to pass the legislation in order for it to shift the tax rate for fiscal 2025.

A press release from the mayor's office in January said the legislation would need to be passed by March in order to affect the fiscal year 2025 tax rate, as "this would allow for relief by adjusting the final quarterly property tax bill for the fiscal year in April 2025."

Lawmakers did not act on the home rule petition prior to March 1. The first action taken on it was the referral to the House Rules Committee on March 13.

Though the petition was not passed in time to change the fiscal 2025 tax rate, it does still include several other provisions, including those Collins mentioned Sunday having to do with rebates for taxpayers from surplus funds.

The amount of money and the rebate are to be determined by the city of Boston and will be subject to an appropriation reviewed and approved by the city council, according to the mayor's office.

Also, the new proposal expands property tax relief for low-income seniors by modifying the eligibility criteria for the so-called 41C senior tax relief program, as well as increasing the amount of the exemption.

Wu's original proposal to shift the city's property tax scheme died in the Senate, with Collins joined by other powerful senators in opposition to the plan. At the time, the South Boston Democrat said he believed the City Council should instead provide targeted relief to residential homeowners.

In Sunday's interview, he told Keller his opinion on the tax shift remained the same, but that he was glad for the rebates in the mayor's new legislation.

"My position on the tax shift stays the same. That it is unnecessary, it's risky long term," he said. "But I think the important thing is we have resources that we can put to bear for property tax relief. The previous proposal was not tax relief, it was a tax shift, cloaked into a narrative of tax relief."

Keller asked Collins whether he would endorse Wu in her campaign for reelection later this year, or support her opponent Democrat Josh Kraft.

"At this point, I'm not wading into that. We've got a lot of work to do in the Senate ... I tend to not jump in too early on a race that's not my own," Collins replied.

Written by Sam Drysdale/SHNS

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