Editorial: Mayor candidates must weigh on the BIZ problem of Boston

A question for mayor Michelle Wu and the candidates who run to fire her: how would you bring companies back to the empty commercial buildings in Boston?

It is a twoarter: how would you convince the owners of those commercial buildings that Boston is a good place to stay? As the Herald reported, they are not happy with the hub.

Owners of commercial real estate in Boston claim that they are being hit with a “hidden penalty” after submitting reductions to the city.

Real estate owners in Boston serve to submit tax reduction when they think that their residential or commercial property has been assessed higher than the real market value. But the last owners of commercial real estate, instead, instead, the city added a rated value to their buildings, after an appeal to the Appellate Tax Board of the State, according to an analysis by Daniel Swift, a director of the worldwide tax consultancy Ryan.

This so -called “hidden tax” fine has added everywhere from a few hundred or thousands of dollars to nearly $ 400,000 extra real estate tax for various commercial packages.

It’s right. Office property tax assessments for the tax year 2025 amounted to around $ 33 billion, which generated around $ 865 million in income from real estate tax for the city, per figures provided to the Herald. Applying an over-assessment average of 37% in the entire office class of the office suggests an overvaluation of around $ 9 billion and an associated overload of more than $ 200 million, according to the SWIFT analysis.

It would not be the first time that owners of commercial real estate were thrown under the bus. Mayor Wu tried, through a petition from the home rule, to move more Van Boston’s real estate tax to commercial property.

Not a good way to support the business environment of the city, especially with so many office buildings looking for tenants. If you knew you would go with tax increases by moving your company to Boston, why would you?

And we need more companies, Stat. The Boston Policy Institute has recently published a report that shows that office values ​​are falling on a stable clip than projected last year, at 35-45% versus 20-30% in the next five years.

That decline could push the city’s budget deficit over the next five years to $ 1.7 billion.

The WU administration disputed the analysis of Swift. But it is the owners of real estate who claim that this is happening, and that does nothing to promote the perception of a city that feeds its business community.

So mayor Wu, Josh Kraft, Domingos Darosa and Robert Cappucci, how would you tackle the commercial real estate tax in the city? Is an audit needed? What ideas do you have to attract companies to fill those empty buildings? What would you do about housing costs so that people can afford to live and work here?

The Pandemie brought about a revolution in the workplace, and not always in a good way. Many people can work from home or maintain a hybrid setup, and others have been ordered back to the office.

Boston and his leaders still feel the consequences, especially in tax revenues. It is a difficult situation, but commercial property cannot be the go-to-tax scapegoat. We need solutions and the next mayor forum would be a good place to hear something.