Lydia Edwards, City Councilor for District One (North End, Charlestown and East Boston) has released a report summarizing the issues she worked on at the Council as well as her community engagement from this past year. One issue directly related to the North End is the ordinance to regulate short-term rentals (AirBnB, etc). Although Governor Read More…
In the summer edition of Commonwealth Magazine, Bruce Mohl pens an article, “Just Plain Ugly,” of the Harbor Garage Redevelopment situation that has led to a standstill between owner/developer, Don Chiofaro, and the City of Boston. Beyond presenting the differing perspectives, the magazine reviewed all the internal correspondence on the subject at the Boston Redevelopment Read More…
The City of Boston has announced a property tax rate increase for fiscal 2010 with the residential rate going up by 11.8% and the commercial rate up by 8.4%. The tax rate is one of the two factors that will result in total property tax bills. The second factor is the property’s assessed value, which is surveyed every three years. Residents should have received a recent notice of the change in their assessment. Overall, the City’s assessed values went down by 3.5% although certain areas have increased. Anecdotal reports show a mix of increases and decreases in the North End/Waterfront area, although several properties on the waterfront saw their assessments go up substantially.
The rate will increase from $10.63 per $1,000 in assessed value to $11.88. The commercial rate for businesses will also increase from $27.11 per $1,000 of assessed value to $29.38.
The City blamed the increase mostly on a decrease in State aid and said the rate is the first increase in three years. The increase will increase the total tax by $65 million to $1.465 billion. Bills will be sent out in a few weeks with a due date of February 1, 2010.
Below is the press release from the City.
