The state’s top tax official declined to investigate city tax hikes on 150 struggling office buildings, even when presented with evidence, a watchdog group says. Stock photo
What’s up with state Commissioner of Revenue Geoffrey Snyder?
Massachusetts’ top taxman allegedly blew off evidence that Boston office towers were hit with retaliatory city property tax hikes.
If the idea was to ignore the problem in hopes that it would just go away, well, that clearly didn’t work
If anything, Snyder’s seeming “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” routine created a mess for his boss, Gov. Maura Healey, who’s running for reelection this fall.
Last week, the Pioneer Institute think-tank sent letters to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Revenue and Secretary of Administration and Finance Matthew Gorzkowicz.
The subject? Snyder’s puzzling reluctance to seriously examine evidence of retaliatory tax hikes by Boston City Hall.
The alleged victims were Boston commercial property owners. As the shift to remote work wreaked havoc on the market for in-person workspace, office building owners discovered to their frustration that, while City Hall had lowered the taxable value of their properties somewhat in light of plummeting occupancy rates, the declines weren’t steep enough to reflect market reality.
However, when office property owners filed for tax abatements, city officials responded by hiking the assessed value of the buildings – and their tax bills – back up to what they were before.
Calls for Hearings, Investigation
After uncovering the practice, Pioneer’s legal watchdog arm, the Pioneer New England Legal Foundation, filed a class-action lawsuit in state court and submitted evidence to Snyder.
Pioneer presented the state revenue commissioner with dozens of cases where Boston office buildings and towers saw their property values and tax bills rise after filing for abatements.
Snyder’s office has clear authority under state law to investigate municipal assessors’ work on top of its other work collecting state taxes.
So that makes Snyder’s response to Pioneer’s evidence beyond puzzling.
“Before litigation, the Commissioner declined to investigate because he said he could not substantiate the practice. Now that litigation has produced considerably more evidence of the practice—including 150 examples identified through the City’s own records—he says the litigation itself prevents him from investigating. The Commissioner cannot have it both ways,” Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios wrote in his letter last week to Gorzkowicz, the Healey administration’s top budget official.
With Pioneer and a downtown office building owner now challenging the practice in state court, Boston officials have since coughed up evidence of 150 different buildings that were hit by these allegedly retaliatory tax hikes.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration appears to have stopped the process since then, and has denied all wrongdoing in the affair.
Scott Van Voorhis
Will Legislature Force Action?
The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Revenue should at least hold an oversight hearing about why Snyder seems to be sitting on his hands, Stergios wrote. Pioneer’s announcement of the letters last week notes that the group “shared a presentation of public data as well as disclosures from the City with the staff and one of the chairs of the Joint Committee regarding the statuary responsibilities of the Department of Revenue.”
Gorzkowicz, the Healey budget official who’s technically Snyder’s boss, should also look into the matter, Stergios’ second letter argues.
It will certainly be interesting to see what, if any, response Pioneer’s appeals shake loose from the Healey administration or the Legislature.
Meanwhile, the Pioneer New England Legal Foundation has filed public records requests “seeking the records underlying DOR’s original conclusion that it could not substantiate the practice.”
So far, state officials have declined to produce any records, offering the usual array of bureaucratic dodges.
The state revenue chief is simply being asked to investigate rather serious allegations that Boston City Hall engaged in retaliatory tax hikes.
No one is demanding that Snyder take sides or even take a stand, just that he do the job he was appointed to do.
Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist and publisher of the Contrarian Boston newsletter; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
