GOP lawmaker is again blocking Wu’s tax proposal from moving forward

A Republican state representative from Norwell again blocked Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s internal property tax rules petition from advancing in the state House on Friday.

Representative David DeCoste, for the second time in two days, used a procedural motion to delay the legislation, which Wu said urgently needs approval from state lawmakers and the governor before the end of the month to give the City Council and state officials time to set property tax rates before tax bills are sent out in early January.

The proposal would give the city the authority to temporarily shift more of Boston’s property tax burden onto commercial real estate, beyond what is allowed under state law, to prevent residential property owners from seeing a significant increase in their tax bills in January . This latest iteration of the measure is a compromise that has the blessing of Wu and the big business groups that opposed the original legislation for months.

Although he does not represent any part of Boston, DeCoste said Thursday he blocked the bill because he is concerned about the economic impact the measure would have beyond Boston.

On Friday, he doubted the presence of a quorum — or whether more than half of the House’s 157 representatives were present — the same maneuver he used to delay the bill on Thursday.

Representative Rob Consalvo of Boston, a former Boston city councilman who sponsored the legislation on Beacon Hill, said Friday that he hopes to meet with DeCoste over the weekend to discuss the proposal.

“I really give a lot of credit to the mayor and the business community for coming together and finding this compromise, so I’m happy to sit down with him over coffee and talk with him about how we think we could get to yes Consalvo said. “At the end of the day, he’s doing his job as a state representative. He plays by the rules, he’s got the ability to do it, so it’s up to me and the mayor and our other colleagues to try and convince him and I’m happy to do whatever I have to do at the weekend and make it happen.”

Over 70% of Boston’s budget is funded by property taxes. But with downtown commercial property values ​​plummeting as a result of post-pandemic telecommuting, the city faces the prospect of either charging significantly higher tax rates to residential property owners to make up the difference or reducing the number of officials. let’s say it would be hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget. Wu’s measure would mitigate that increase by easing the transition to higher residential property tax rates over a three-year period.

The House previously voted to pass an earlier version of Wu’s proposal during formal summer sessions before the measure stalled for months in the state Senate. The current version of Wu’s proposal is a compromise with business groups that had lobbied against his original domestic rules petition. A legislative committee advanced the bill to the full House on Thursday morning after Wu testified in support of the amended bill during a hearing on the issue on Wednesday.

The House is scheduled to return Monday for another informal session, where the bill could come up again. But if less than half of the House members show up — a likely scenario given the time of year — DeCoste or another representative could block passage of the bill another time.

Friday’s delay highlighted the challenge the Legislature’s Democratic leaders face in trying to move legislation through informal, sparsely attended sessions.

Even with a supermajority in both chambers, Democrats have repeatedly SEEN bills stall amid GOP opposition over the past year, after allowing major legislation to slip past deadlines set by lawmakers to hold formal votes.

Wu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. On Thursday, she said it was “disappointing to see a procedural delay used for a local government petition, especially since state representatives in Boston have already voted to support the measure and their constituents are the ones facing the potential for a devastating increase of taxes. which our consensus solution would address.”

Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Niki Griswold can be reached at [email protected]. Follow a @nikigriswold.