Massachusetts Senate Set to Vote on Property Tax Relief and Ballot Campaign Transparency Bills

BY SAM DRYSDALE

During their first major session of the year, senators plan to vote Thursday on whether to allow cities and towns to offer credits and rebates during so-called property tax shock years, as well as new financial reporting requirements for ballot question committees.

The tax shock bill (S 2899) pushed by Sens. Nick Collins of South Boston and William Brownsberger of Belmont, is the chamber’s response to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposal to temporarily shift more of the city’s tax burden onto commercial property owners to avoid a spike in residential rates. The chamber has consistently opposed Wu’s home rule petition, which had support in the House last session. 

Senators filed 13 amendments to the bill, which would let communities protect “vulnerable” taxpayers during years when a community’s residential property tax levy is rising by more than 10%. Collins filed seven of those, but they were each listed as withdrawn before the session began. Six amendments remain, including one by Boston Sens. Michael Rush and Liz Mirandawhich closely resembles the mayor’s home rule petition.

The Rush and Miranda Amendment 6 would allow Boston to adjust its property tax classification for fiscal years 2027, 2028 and 2029 “if adoption of such factor for any such year would result in the residential property class bearing a higher percentage of the total property tax levy than the percentage of the total property tax levy imposed on the residential property class in fiscal year 2025,” according to the amendment.

Under this amendment, maximum shift levels would not exceed 181.5% in FY27, 180% in FY28, and 178% in FY29.

Other amendments include one from Sen. Robyn Kennedy to create a commission to study the distribution of Unrestricted General Government Aid to municipalities (Amendment 3), a proposal from Sen. Miranda to let cities and towns temporarily cap how much owner-occupied homeowners’ property tax bills can rise in tax shock years (Amendment 5), and a Sen. Rebecca Raush amendment to change the definition of a “young family qualifying property” eligible for certain tax shock prevention credits from families with children under aged 6 to children under 18 (Amendment 1). 

Lawmakers will also take up a bill to expand disclosure rules for ballot question campaigns and reveal a more steady flow of information about their funding sources (S 2898). The bill is hitting the Senate floor at a time when a parade of costly and controversial initiative petitions are making their way toward the 2026 ballot.

Senators have filed 15 amendments to the bill. 

Sen. Sal DiDomenico filed an emergency preamble to the bill — which would make it take effect immediately after becoming law, and therefore in time to cover the 12 potential ballot questions this year.

House Speaker Ron Mariano has signaled interest in taking up this issue soon. Mariano pointed last month to a “blackout period” that begins Jan. 20, when ballot committees don’t need to report their finances again until September. 

Eight of the amendments have been filed by Minority Leader Bruce Tarr. Some of those include increasing contribution limits for political action committees (Amendment 5) and state party committees (Amendment 3), and requiring a post-election audit for all statewide elections (Amendment 12). 

Senate Democrats caucus at 11 a.m., and the Senate session begins at 1 p.m.