FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

01/08/2026

Mayor Wu continues to push her effort to further raise Boston’s commercial property tax rate, even though as of 2022 the city already had the second highest ratio of commercial to residential effective tax rates among the largest cities in each state. Wu claims that cutting Boston’s budget to rein in residential and commercial property taxes isn’t an option, even though annual spending has risen from $3.76 billion to $4.8 billion in four years on her watch. 

That’s what made Mayor Wu’s December announcement that she plans to use a union-only project labor agreement to build the new Madison Park Technical Vocational High School so perplexing.  The PLA would dramatically reduce competition by preventing the over 80 percent of the Massachusetts construction workforce that chooses not to affiliate with a union from working on the project.   

Over a 10-month period in 2024 and 2025, The Boston Globe twice weighed in with editorials that opposed the use of PLAs on public projects.  The first concluded that they add 10 to 20 percent to project costs.  In this case, that means spending 100 million additional Boston taxpayer dollars to build Madison Park. 

It’s certainly a curious decision for a city that claims it doesn’t have enough money to retain employers and residents by keeping their property taxes under control. 

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