Boston council committee hears annual tax-classification order; council to vote Wednesday on 35% residential exemption

The Boston City Council’s Ways and Means committee held a public hearing on Dec. 8 on docket 2045, the annual order to adopt the city’s tax classification and a 35% residential homeowners exemption for fiscal year 2026. Chair Brian Worrell said the full council will vote on the item on Wednesday.

Ashley Grafenberg, the city’s chief financial officer, and Nicholas Arellano, commissioner of assessing, told the committee the action is routine but time-sensitive: without adoption of classification and the residential exemption the city would default to a single flat tax rate that Arellano estimated at $15.40. “Without passage of this docket, we would revert to a system where we have one flat tax rate for everybody,” Arellano said.

Arellano outlined several numeric scenarios. Using the values the administration has certified, a likely FY2026 scenario with a 175% classification shift and a 35% residential exemption would yield an estimated…