Cambridge Civic Journal Forum

Taxing Time – October 7, 2024 Cambridge City Council meeting

It’s that time of year again, fellow citizens (especially you property owners), when the bills come due to pay for all that marvelous largess of your favorite elected officials and City staff. It’s Taxing Time! The revenuers are coming!

Here are the items that got my attention:

Charter Right #1. That the City Manager is requested to work with the appropriate departments to produce the petition(s) necessary to accomplish the goal of lowering the speed limit as much as possible on all state highways that fall within Cambridge’s geographic boundaries, including and especially Memorial Drive. [Charter Right – Azeem, Sept 30, 2024] (PO24#137)
Comments by all; Adopted as Amended 5-4 (BA,MM,PN,SS,JSW-Yes; PT,AW,CZ,DS-No)

Manager’s Agenda #2. A communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to an update on Memorial Drive. (CM24#219) [text of report]
pulled by Toner; Placed on File 8-0-1 (DS-Absent)

“In the short time since the crash, DCR has mobilized its Engineering staff, completing layout of an expanded shared use path along the river straddling the BU rotary, for a total of roughly 1,000 linear feet. DCR will widen the path west of the Rotary (to the Magazine Beach parking lot) and east of the rotary (to the BU boathouse).”

“Although the BU Bridge refurbishment project is complete along with improvements to the intersection on the south end of the bridge at Commonwealth Avenue, a severe southbound queueing problem persists, stretching well into lower Cambridgeport in the afternoon rush period, especially before events at Fenway Park. The problem is caused by southbound approach capacity at Commonwealth Avenue rather than by the rotary itself. Additionally, the current bicycle lanes on the BU Bridge do not have physical separation and the lane configuration is challenging for cyclists. Conversations are currently underway between the multiple jurisdictional stakeholders around the rotary and the Bridge about possible improvements to improve both the congestion impacts in Cambridgeport and the bicycle facilities on the Bridge itself.”

Tax Rate Hearing #1. A communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to votes necessary to seek approval from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue of the tax rate for FY2025. (CM24#220) [text of report]
Orders Adopted, Placed on File 8-0-1 (DS-Absent)

Agenda Item Number 1A     Oct 7, 2024
ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is authorized to use $2,000,000 in Overlay Surplus Reserve to be used to reduce the Fiscal Year 2025 tax rate.
Order Adopted 8-0-1 (DS-Absent)

Agenda Item Number 1B     Oct 7, 2024
ORDERED: That the City Council classifies property within the City of Cambridge into five property classes allowed for the purpose of allocating the property tax levy. Additionally, that the City Council hereby adopts a minimum residential factor of 64.2099 for the purpose of distributing the property tax levy.
Order Adopted 8-0-1 (DS-Absent)

Agenda Item Number 1C     Oct 7, 2024
ORDERED: That the City Council approves a thirty (30) percent residential exemption for owner-occupied homes.
Order Adopted 8-0-1 (DS-Absent)

The bottom line is: The FY25 Adopted Operating Budget increased by 8.1% ($71.8 million) over the FY24 Adopted Budget. This compares to last year’s 7.2% over the FY23 Adopted Budget ($57.8 million) – after some one-time accounting changes. The FY25 Budget adopted by the City Council in June 2024 projected a property tax levy increase of $53.4 million (9.28%) to $628.8 million in order to fund operating and capital expenditures. With approval of the recommendations in this memo, the actual FY25 tax levy required to support the FY25 Budget is $628,388,753 which is an increase of $52,970,264 or 9.21% from FY24. This increase is slightly lower than the estimated increase of 9.28% projected in June 2024 as part of the Adopted Budget, due in large part to higher than projected investment earnings.

The property tax levy increase of 9.21% is higher than the FY24 increase of 8.3%. The five-year (FY21-FY25) annual average increase is 7.51%, and the ten-year (FY16-FY25) annual average increase is 6.31%. The FY25 residential tax rate will be $6.35 per thousand dollars of value, subject to Department of Revenue approval. This is an increase of $0.43, or approximately 7.3% from FY24. The commercial tax rate will be $11.52, which is an increase of $1.06, or 10.1% from FY24.

By property class, an average a single-family home will see a 7.86% tax increase, a two-family will see a 6.44% increase, a three-family will see a 7.5% increase, and a condo will see an 11.46% increase. This last figure is interesting in that due to the flat residential exemption, condo owners have actually been seeing decreases in recent years. Here are the median figures including the CPA Surcharge:

FY2025 Taxes

History of changes in residential property taxes

Note: Unlike previous years, the information on the number of residential properties in each
of the 17 Residential Tax Districts was not provided in this year’s City Manager letter.

Order #1. That this City Council go on record in support of 2024 ballot Question 2 to replace the MCAS graduation requirement and require instead that districts certify that students have satisfactorily completed coursework demonstrating mastery of the skills and knowledge required by the Commonwealth’s strong, statewide standards in order to graduate.   Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Councillor Siddiqui, Councillor Wilson (PO24#139)
pulled by Toner; comments by all but Simmons; Order Fails 4-4-0-1 (MM,SS,JSW,AW-Yes; BA,PN,PT,CZ-No; DS-Present)
Note: Councillor Toner quoted statistics that, over the last 10 years at CRLS, there have been 5,352 graduations and only 41 who did not receive a diploma due to failure to pass 10th Grade MCAS exam.

Late Communications & Reports #2. A communication from David Murphy, Interim Superintendent of Schools, re: CPS MCAS Achievement Data.
Placed on File 9-0

Suffice to say that I do not agree with this policy order nor do I agree with the current heavily funded media campaign sponsored by the Mass. Teacher’s Association (MTA) in support of this measure. Maintaining the MCAS graduation requirement does not mean that teachers must “teach to the test.” It simply means that they have to do a great job of teaching. Lowering standards (even if the MTA claims this would do otherwise) is what some refer to as the “soft bigotry of low expectations” and I agree with this characterization. – Robert Winters