Press Release: 9/22/2026

Pioneer Calls on MA Leaders to Probe Department Of Revenue's Inaction

September 21, 2026

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When Boston commercial property owners exercised their right to appeal their assessments, many saw those assessments increase. Pioneer Institute is asking the Legislature and the Healey administration to find out why the state’s tax authority won’t investigate on the matter.

Pioneer has called on the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Revenue and Secretary of Administration and Finance Matthew Gorzkowicz to examine why Commissioner of Revenue Geoffrey Snyder has repeatedly declined to review evidence that Boston’s Assessing Department systematically raised commercial assessments after owners appealed.

The action follows more than a year of inaction by the Department of Revenue (DOR) after Pioneer New England Legal Foundation first uncovered the practice. It pursues a separate path for relief under state law, distinct from the Foundation’s pending lawsuit against the City.

How we got here

In 2025, the Legal Foundation presented Commissioner Snyder with evidence of 59 cases in which commercial properties received substantial assessment increases after their owners appealed to the Appellate Tax Board. It asked him to use his oversight authority under state law. He declined, saying DOR could not substantiate the practice, and declined repeated offers to meet.

Since then, the City has disclosed in litigation talks that 150 commercial properties had assessments increased following an appeal, and those represent only a subset, with more records still to come.

When the Legal Foundation asked Commissioner Snyder to reopen the matter in light of this new evidence, he declined again, this time citing the pending litigation.

What the letters ask for

The Legislature. Pioneer’s letter to the Joint Committee on Revenue asks the Committee to hold an oversight hearing on Boston’s assessment practices, DOR’s response to the evidence, and how Commissioner Snyder reads his supervisory duties under state law. The Committee doesn’t have direct authority over the Commissioner, but it is the right forum to ask whether the oversight system is working. That system was built by the Legislature in response to a 1974 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that outlawed “fractional” assessments. Late last week, Pioneer shared public data and the City’s own disclosures with committee staff and one of its chairs.

The Healey administration. Pioneer’s letter to Secretary of Administration and Finance Matthew Gorzkowicz asks him, as the official with statutory “direction, control and supervision” over DOR, to ensure Commissioner Snyder carries out his responsibility to investigate and press the City to correct the practice. The Secretary appoints the Commissioner and, with the Governor’s approval, may remove him. Copies went to Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. Pioneer has not yet received a response.