Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray WBS Costin's radio.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, every once in a while you hear
Speaker 2: about a story and you don't pay a lot of
Speaker 2: attention to at least there's a lot of stuff that
Speaker 2: goes across my desk to whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2: And this is one that has caught my eye in
Speaker 2: the last few days and seems to be heating up
Speaker 2: a little bit. And if you're a commercial property owner
Speaker 2: in Boston, or if you're a residential property owner in Boston,
Speaker 2: Mayor Woo is involved in a bit of a struggle
Speaker 2: with the state legislature because she wants to increase the
Speaker 2: commercial property tax rate here in Boston on a temporary basis,
Speaker 2: but wants to increase it over the next few years
Speaker 2: and for the next three years, as I understand it,
Speaker 2: And she says, if she's not allowed to do that,
Speaker 2: she needs permission of the state. To do that, she's
Speaker 2: going to have to substantially raise the property taxes of
Speaker 2: residents of Boston. So to try to kind of sort
Speaker 2: all of this out, I'm delighted to welcome a guest
Speaker 2: from the Boston Policy Institute. His name is Greg Maynard.
Speaker 2: Greg Maynard. Welcome to Night's Side. How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm great, Thank you so much for having me on, Dan,
Speaker 3: You're welcome.
Speaker 2: Greg is the executive director of the Boston Policy Institute,
Speaker 2: which is a relatively new policy institute. You've been around
Speaker 2: about a year. Tell us how it came to be,
Speaker 2: the Boston Policy Institute.
Speaker 3: So we came together because we're trying to kind of
Speaker 3: put numbers on some of these big questions that people have.
Speaker 3: So one of the big things, the reason that we're
Speaker 3: involved in this issue is we put out a report
Speaker 3: back in February that actually quantified how much the loss
Speaker 3: of value and offices was going to affect boston'udget. You know,
Speaker 3: here in Massachusetts, cities and towns are really dependent on
Speaker 3: property property values and on property tax to fund their
Speaker 3: local budget, and so we knew that since remote work
Speaker 3: has started and offices had started selling for significantly less
Speaker 3: than they did before COVID, it was something that we
Speaker 3: needed to look at, and so we actually put a
Speaker 3: number on that and found that Boston faced a one
Speaker 3: point four billion dollar shortfall in commercial property tax revenue
Speaker 3: over the next five years.
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's put some context around that, Okay, before
Speaker 2: the pandemic two thousand and nineteen, Boston's budget approximately how
Speaker 2: much money does it take to run the city of Boston.
Speaker 2: Just give me around for let's figure out how it
Speaker 2: breaks out between commercial and residential.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like so, for instance, this year, Boston's budget
Speaker 3: is four point six billion dollars, and out of that,
Speaker 3: seventy five percent of it is funded from property taxes.
Speaker 2: And then how does the property tax split in terms
Speaker 2: of if again, if you you said Boston the budget
Speaker 2: is five point six is that the number four point
Speaker 2: six billion dollars? And that, by the way, compares when
Speaker 2: you think about the state budget is about fifty eight
Speaker 2: billion dollars. So Boston is a little less than ten
Speaker 2: percent of the state budget. But Boston also, you know,
Speaker 2: during the day it's it's it's population explodes. I think
Speaker 2: it probably doubles. But let's just deal We'll deal with
Speaker 2: the four point six billion. Okay, So seventy five percent
Speaker 2: of that has to come from some form of real
Speaker 2: estate taxes, and seventy five percent of that I'm just
Speaker 2: trying to do something in my head here is going
Speaker 2: to be about three point one billion. If I'm if
Speaker 2: I'm doing the math correctly, How does that seventy five
Speaker 2: percent breakdown currently between so how did it commercial and residential?
Speaker 2: So right now it's but like percentages percentages, right, so.
Speaker 3: It's about sixty forty between commercial properties pay sixty percent
Speaker 3: of the taxes and residents pay forty percent.
Speaker 2: Okay, So now is that currently is that what it
Speaker 2: traditionally had been?
Speaker 3: That is what it is right now, but it is
Speaker 3: likely to start to change because of the falls and
Speaker 3: office values.
Speaker 2: Okay, So so prior budgets have not really reflected the
Speaker 2: decrease in office values.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because it's you know, property property values are something
Speaker 3: that take a really long long time to like go
Speaker 3: up and go go down. Right, We have propped you, and.
Speaker 2: I think they they re evaluate them on like a
Speaker 2: three year cycle or something like that. Yeah, it's longer, okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and and people are able to challenge them. But
Speaker 3: a lot of it is based, especially for commercial properties,
Speaker 3: it's based on occupancy rates and sales price and different
Speaker 3: kinds of things, and all of that takes a long
Speaker 3: time to kind of like catch up to. Like, so
Speaker 3: you know, a building might not be worth that much
Speaker 3: money right now, but if it hasn't sold yet, then
Speaker 3: we don't really know how much money it's worth, and
Speaker 3: it's going to keep on paying its previous taxes.
Speaker 2: Okay, So essentially, what I'm hearing you say is that
Speaker 2: reality is about to strike here in Boston. So, yes,
Speaker 2: what do you think? What do you think if nothing
Speaker 2: is done? What will the commercial tax rate instead of
Speaker 2: being sixty percent if the value of commercial property has decreased.
Speaker 2: How big a decreased will that be? In terms of
Speaker 2: what percentage of the of the budget will will commercial
Speaker 2: property fund? If it doesn't fund sixty percent of you know,
Speaker 2: the three point one billion, how low could.
Speaker 3: That it's gonna So the big, the big problem Boston
Speaker 3: has is that Boston taxes commercial real estate at one
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy five percent the rate of residential real estate.
Speaker 3: And so that's that's a lot to understate law. But
Speaker 3: what that means is that residential property in Boston makes
Speaker 3: up about two thirds of the value of all of
Speaker 3: the property in Boston, but they only pay forty percent
Speaker 3: of the taxes. Commercial property makes up only about a
Speaker 3: third of the value, but they pay sixty percent of
Speaker 3: the taxes. And so from all the.
Speaker 2: Crimes, commercial properties are carrying a heavier lift a heavier
Speaker 2: low than residential, which which is fine, you know, as
Speaker 2: long as it's it's not overly onerous, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the problem that Boston faces here is, you know,
Speaker 3: property taxes are an extremely durable like way to raise money,
Speaker 3: like they almost never never change. But because of this
Speaker 3: really unique thing of work from home and the collapse
Speaker 3: and office values that it has brought on, it means
Speaker 3: that Boston's budget is kind of uniquely vulnerable to this
Speaker 3: kind of problem.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the other and you've explained it very well, Greg,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate the clarity of your explanation. The other
Speaker 2: thing which is under underlying cause over which no one
Speaker 2: has any control. We have a lot of schools, universities, churches, hospitals, museums,
Speaker 2: baseball parks, all of which probably don't pay they get
Speaker 2: they get a break. A lot of the schools simply
Speaker 2: make a donation or a contribution in lieu of taxes,
Speaker 2: and those contributions never are even close to what they
Speaker 2: would pay if they were taxed at the regular tax rate.
Speaker 2: Am I correct on that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Now, the pilots don't add up to one hundred percent
Speaker 3: of the sluice value.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the fact that the matter is that Boston
Speaker 2: is a is a relatively small city geographically have great neighborhoods.
Speaker 2: But now the mayor wants to, if I'm wrong here,
Speaker 2: tell me take this burden, this tax burden, and even
Speaker 2: increase it on commercial properties at a time when the
Speaker 2: value of those commercial properties is depressed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's right.
Speaker 2: And of course the commercial properties are very concerned about this.
Speaker 2: The mayor is saying, Hey, if I don't increase how
Speaker 2: much the commercial properties have to pay, they're already paying
Speaker 2: you know, quote unquote more than their fair share. I
Speaker 2: hate that term because it's such an amorphous term, the
Speaker 2: mayor says, and she may have to send out tax
Speaker 2: bills to residential homeowners which will show a dramatic increase
Speaker 2: in their real estate taxes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's true. But I think the thing that's
Speaker 3: going unsaid here, and what the mayor's talking about with
Speaker 3: these tax increases, is that residents in Boston are going
Speaker 3: to see these their taxes go up substantially, whether or
Speaker 3: not the mayor's bill that's before the State House right
Speaker 3: now passes. Right. So, when she originally proposed it was
Speaker 3: for five years. She's now negotiated it down to three.
Speaker 3: No matter how long it is. At the end of it,
Speaker 3: residential taxes are going to be at the same like
Speaker 3: price per thousand that they were going to be. And
Speaker 3: so what she's proposing is like a very very short
Speaker 3: term solution to what looks like it's going to be
Speaker 3: a very long term problem here in Boston.
Speaker 2: So, okay, when we get back, I want to ask
Speaker 2: you if if you want to venture into these choppy waters,
Speaker 2: you can. But it seems to me that the timing
Speaker 2: of all of this could not be worse for the
Speaker 2: mayor because she's up for reelection next year, and I
Speaker 2: wonder if this is just a dilemma that she finds
Speaker 2: herself in over which she has really no control, or
Speaker 2: if she's trying to make sure that the damage that
Speaker 2: would be done is minimal to her politically. And we'll
Speaker 2: get into some of that with you when we come back.
Speaker 2: If you want to ask a question of someone who
Speaker 2: knows probably more about this than I do, Greg Maynard.
Speaker 2: He is the executive director of the Boston Policy Institute.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate the clarity of your explanations, and I'm
Speaker 2: hoping that some of our Boston residents or others. Commercial
Speaker 2: folks may join the conversation six seven ten thirty six
Speaker 2: one seven nine three one ten thirty. My name is
Speaker 2: Dan Ray. This is Nightside. We try to pick different topics.
Speaker 2: This is one that does have an impact on the
Speaker 2: city in which all of us, if we don't physically
Speaker 2: live in Boston, we are obviously affected by what happens
Speaker 2: in Boston because it is the capital city not only
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts, but also it's the hub well it's the
Speaker 2: capital city of New England, and we like to think
Speaker 2: of it as the hub of the world. Back on
Speaker 2: Nightside with my guest, Greg Maynard of the Boston Polosy Institute,
Speaker 2: right after a couple of messages.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: So many mayors in Boston over the years have fell
Speaker 2: have faced these dilemmas, how do you raise taxes fairly?
Speaker 2: And I'm hoping that that is what Mayor Wu is
Speaker 2: planning on doing or trying trying to do right now.
Speaker 2: But again, Greg, without getting you into some controversy here,
Speaker 2: this is a tough time for Mayor Wu. I mean,
Speaker 2: she is going to face reelection next year. How much
Speaker 2: of a factor do you think that is in her
Speaker 2: thoughts or do you think she would just put that
Speaker 2: aside and just deal with what's going on.
Speaker 3: So the problem that the Mary is facing is pretty unique,
Speaker 3: and so like, I don't I don't envy, I don't
Speaker 3: envy the position that she's that she's in the city
Speaker 3: has not faced all of these problems happening at the
Speaker 3: same time, with falling commercial values and rising home values
Speaker 3: and the prospect that commercial values are just going to
Speaker 3: keep on following. So you know, it's something that is
Speaker 3: going to require like a lot of creative thinking and
Speaker 3: not something where we can kind of rummage around in
Speaker 3: the past and find solutions that have worked for you know,
Speaker 3: Mayor Menino or Mayor White or mayor Collins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a dilemma because not only do you
Speaker 2: have these sort of economic forces at work, but as
Speaker 2: I understand it, today is the day that a lot
Speaker 2: of the COVID relief money ended. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: teachers in Boston and Lynn today were out on the
Speaker 2: picket line. I believe the teachers union needs a new
Speaker 2: contract in Boston, and they were They're concerned in Lynn
Speaker 2: about an expansion of a charter school program. And one
Speaker 2: of the reasons that there was a lot of money
Speaker 2: that came slashing up to Massachusetts and to other states
Speaker 2: in the wake of COVID, but that money now is
Speaker 2: dried up. So's it's not as if the federal government,
Speaker 2: which is thirty five to thirty six trillion dollars in debt,
Speaker 2: can start writing checks to every major city. This is really,
Speaker 2: I hate to put it like this, Greg, but a
Speaker 2: perfect storm for the city of Boston and probably some
Speaker 2: other cities around the country as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3: It really is a perfect storm.
Speaker 4: It's really.
Speaker 3: The thing that is is uniquely bad for Boston is
Speaker 3: because it's so property tax dependent. It's really badly impacted
Speaker 3: by this, and programs that work in other cities to
Speaker 3: promote growth and to promote things that will generate more
Speaker 3: revenue for the city just won't work here the same way.
Speaker 3: Like in New York City, for instance, the city collects
Speaker 3: its own sales tax, so the city can afford to
Speaker 3: give out tax breaks to building build new apartments because
Speaker 3: everyone who lives in those apartments, they pay city income tax,
Speaker 3: they pay city sales tax, and so they contribute to
Speaker 3: the city's budget, even if they're building is not paying
Speaker 3: full boat property tax. But in Boston, the city doesn't
Speaker 3: have access to any of that revenue, and so the
Speaker 3: only way for the city to grow its budget is
Speaker 3: to have property be worth more right either through regular
Speaker 3: valuation rises or by building new buildings.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that the last thing that any Boston mayor,
Speaker 2: particularly one who is about to embark on a re
Speaker 2: election year, would want to do would be tried to
Speaker 2: get a city income tax employment tax through and I
Speaker 2: assume that Mayor will would have to get permission from
Speaker 2: that and Beacon Hill as well. Am I Am I
Speaker 2: right or wrong on that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Exactly in Massachusetts doesn't have you know, we don't have
Speaker 3: a history of letting towns and cities vote to their
Speaker 3: own taxes, right like we have the Proposition two and
Speaker 3: a half rules for a reason.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the mayor apparently has some support in the
Speaker 2: state House of Representatives, or at least has lent her
Speaker 2: a sympathetic year, but she's not at this point, I think,
Speaker 2: convinced the state Senate to provide that that flexibility. And
Speaker 2: apparently she had a meeting last week with the Senate
Speaker 2: President Karen Spilka, And I'm not sure how well it went,
Speaker 2: but certainly it didn't look like they had reached some
Speaker 2: grand deal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not clear how it's how it's going to work.
Speaker 3: And I think you know the other thing here, right,
Speaker 3: is the mayor's compromise with the House reduced the program
Speaker 3: from being five years long to three years long. It
Speaker 3: reduced the amount of taxes they're going to be able
Speaker 3: to raise in the percentages, and it did some carve
Speaker 3: outs for some small small businesses. So it's also like
Speaker 3: the temporary fix that she's proposing was made much more
Speaker 3: temporary by the compromise she struck with the state House.
Speaker 2: Is there enough money in the universities, the hospitals, the churches,
Speaker 2: the museums that the mayor could aggressively go to all
Speaker 2: of those institutions and saying, hey, I know that you're
Speaker 2: paying an amount in lieu of taxes, but the amount
Speaker 2: that you're paying is not nearly enough and we all
Speaker 2: need to step it up. Is that possible or is
Speaker 2: that in your opinion and effort that other mayors have
Speaker 2: made without have tried to make without success.
Speaker 3: Yeah, other you're like you said it right, like other
Speaker 3: other mayors haven't haven't had a lot of success with that.
Speaker 3: And the administration has made really clear over the spring
Speaker 3: when they were debating about the budget with the Chamber
Speaker 3: of Commerce and with the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, the
Speaker 3: administration made it really clear that they intended to raise taxes,
Speaker 3: property taxes to the to the levee, so as much
Speaker 3: as they're allowed to under the under the law, every
Speaker 3: single every single year. Right like other cities and towns
Speaker 3: across Massachusetts don't always raise their taxes to the levee.
Speaker 3: In Boston, they they do. And so, you know, kind
Speaker 3: of regardless of what happens with Pilot these taxes, the
Speaker 3: administration has said, these taxes are going to go up.
Speaker 2: What ware does this story end? In your opinion, Gregular
Speaker 2: or is it just too early to speculate.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that the story of this tax
Speaker 3: proposal is up to you know, our state, our state legislators.
Speaker 3: I think in terms of the you know, what's going
Speaker 3: on with commercial real estate, I think it's still it's
Speaker 3: probably still too early to tell. I think the big
Speaker 3: thing that we haven't seen really be discussed yet, which
Speaker 3: I've been disappointed by is that the city needs to
Speaker 3: find a new source of growth.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: We've built an awful lot of office towers over the
Speaker 3: last twenty years, we built the whole Seaport district, and
Speaker 3: our city has a housing crisis, right, Boston needs a
Speaker 3: lot more homes than we have right right now. So
Speaker 3: it seems like building a lot of houses could fill
Speaker 3: fill some of that some of that gap. But we
Speaker 3: haven't seen any really big, ambitious plans to build the
Speaker 3: number of homes that you need to plug that kind
Speaker 3: of a gap in the budget.
Speaker 2: Well, they built a lot of condos down in the Seaport,
Speaker 2: and they also built a lot of great restaurants. So
Speaker 2: I don't know if the city benefits from that or not.
Speaker 2: I guess not, but they certainly should benefit from the
Speaker 2: development of condominiums, high end condominiums down down in the
Speaker 2: Seaport district then and in other parts of the city. Look,
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it, Greg, This you you simplified in
Speaker 2: a good way complicated issue. Greg Mayor, the executive director
Speaker 2: of the Boston Policy Institute. I'd like to keep in
Speaker 2: touch with you and have you back periodically if that's
Speaker 2: okay with you.
Speaker 3: Oh, I would love to come on. Dan, thank you
Speaker 3: so much for having me on. And I hope people
Speaker 3: learn learned a little bit about this, this big crisis.
Speaker 3: It's going to be going to be with us for
Speaker 3: the next several years.
Speaker 2: Ago. So yeah, and this is the first time we
Speaker 2: touched it, and you did explain it, I thought very well.
Speaker 2: Appreciate the time tonight, Greg, and we'll talk again when
Speaker 2: we get back after the news. At the bottom of
Speaker 2: the hour, I'd like to open it up and get
Speaker 2: your impressions as to what the city of Boston can do. Now. Look,
Speaker 2: if you're a resident of Boston, this is going to
Speaker 2: affect you personally. It's going to affect your residential real
Speaker 2: estate taxes. If you rent in Boston, the owner of
Speaker 2: the building, whether it's a corporation or an individual, will
Speaker 2: certainly pass through the increases that they're asked to pay.
Speaker 2: If you are in commercial development. If it seems to
Speaker 2: me that there's no good solution here, uh, And I
Speaker 2: don't know that any mayor of Boston is going to
Speaker 2: cut any program. I do know that in the schools
Speaker 2: we have an ever decreasing school population and an ever
Speaker 2: increasing school budget. I don't know how you reconcile those
Speaker 2: so love to get your ideas and your thoughts. Six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty, triple eight nine two nine ten thirty
Speaker 2: or six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. I
Speaker 2: will say this, the one thing we have a lot
Speaker 2: of in Boston bicycle lanes. Bicycle lanes have not generated
Speaker 2: a lot of revenue, but we have a lot of
Speaker 2: bicycle lanes. And look, the mayor's face is going to
Speaker 2: be facing a tough re election campaign, and the weaker
Speaker 2: that she might seem, the more likely that some challengers
Speaker 2: will decide to take a shot. Join the conversation. You
Speaker 2: can take a shot. Give us a call here on
Speaker 2: Nightside back right after this.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dany, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Now, all of us pay a lot of taxes. I
Speaker 2: think all of us realize that you pay federal taxes,
Speaker 2: if you're working, you pay Social Security taxes, you pay
Speaker 2: state taxes. In some cities. In New York City there's
Speaker 2: a city tax. So if you live in New York City,
Speaker 2: you pay a city tax, and it can run into
Speaker 2: a lot of money. In Boston, it's a relatively small
Speaker 2: geographic area. It is somewhat limited Boston cannot expand, Okay,
Speaker 2: but it can. He needs to take more and more
Speaker 2: costs to incur more and more costs, and no one
Speaker 2: looks at cuts because that's going to cause political problems.
Speaker 2: But I think Mayor Wolf's gonna have some political problems
Speaker 2: with the with their election year in terms of the taxes.
Speaker 2: Let's go too. Going to start it off with Brian
Speaker 2: in Hyde Park. Brian, great, do we have a first
Speaker 2: caller tonight from hype from Boston?
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Brian, Hey, Dan Hawaii A long time?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Well I gotta do is call any night.
Speaker 2: I'm always here for you.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, I pick and choose, but nice to hear you.
Speaker 4: But well, I think in my conversations before you know
Speaker 4: my background and my thoughts on this. And I called
Speaker 4: in when the Sulim was on a few weeks back.
Speaker 2: No, don't don't hesit, Brian, I have good memory, but
Speaker 2: maybe some of our listeners if you want to preface
Speaker 2: your remarks with a perspective, go right ahead.
Speaker 4: Well it's uh, it's just been a long time coming.
Speaker 4: I think Mayowel has absolutely mismanaged the city financially. Uh,
Speaker 4: during COVID, coming out of COVID. They knew the uh,
Speaker 4: the occupation rate in the in the in the city
Speaker 4: was absolutely down. And you know, now everybody's coming back
Speaker 4: to work. But in the meantime, that's tax money revenue
Speaker 4: lost to all the local businesses and whatnot in the
Speaker 4: property taxes. And I think it goes back to what
Speaker 4: many walls to explained for this. Also because he just
Speaker 4: brother stamps every project in the city. There isn't a
Speaker 4: green space left in the city and it's a shame.
Speaker 4: But I think her management of the city, between the homelessness,
Speaker 4: the drug problem, math and casts and uh, the infrastructure,
Speaker 4: that there isn't a city there.
Speaker 2: Are there no there are green spaces left in the city.
Speaker 2: When you think about it, you have the Boston Common,
Speaker 2: you have the Public Garden, you have the Rose Kennedy
Speaker 2: green Way, you have you know what they call the end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when you add forty fifty thousand residents to the
Speaker 4: to South Boston alone, Dan, it's just it's incredible. Yes,
Speaker 4: there are attacks is coming off the condominiums and whatnot,
Speaker 4: but it's just uh, oyah, the.
Speaker 2: Let's let's let's be honest. In terms of the seaport
Speaker 2: development that was I think really Mayor Menino more so.
Speaker 4: Than it was it was. And that's part of my
Speaker 4: opinion is I think Menino was the last one that
Speaker 4: took the the actual citizens of the city seriously and
Speaker 4: listened to them, and he drove around the city. He
Speaker 4: rode on the streets, he walked the sidewalks, and I
Speaker 4: mean what he did for the infrastructure that every baseball
Speaker 4: diamond in the city had Georgia clay. You know, it
Speaker 4: was just beautiful. It was well, well, rob when you
Speaker 4: take eight thousand, eight million dollars out of cold relief funds,
Speaker 4: which she is absolutely destroyed and just wasted, and spend
Speaker 4: it on three bus routes for four years from one
Speaker 4: section in the city while the guy out in Adam's
Speaker 4: Mass can't even get a bus and just throws that away.
Speaker 4: And now the financial crisis comes to the city is
Speaker 4: going to be amazing.
Speaker 2: My opinion, Well, I don't disagree with the thought that
Speaker 2: man Wu is going to be facing a crisis. She
Speaker 2: obviously realizes that she wouldn't be trotting up to the
Speaker 2: state House looking for some help from the state legislature.
Speaker 2: But what do you if I could ask you, are
Speaker 2: you a homeowner in High Park Brian, No, I am
Speaker 2: Are you a renter? Yes? Okay, So whatever increase your
Speaker 2: landlord receives, you know that he's going to pass that
Speaker 2: on to you. You you want to the other tenants. Okay, unfair,
Speaker 2: but that's the way, that's the way of the world works.
Speaker 2: How much are you paying now for your for your
Speaker 2: your your apartment in Hype.
Speaker 4: Park twenty that's a lot.
Speaker 2: Is that a one bedroom or two bedrooms?
Speaker 3: One bedroom, one bedroom?
Speaker 2: So it's never going to be lower and eventually it's
Speaker 2: going to get higher. And you blame the mayor, I guess,
Speaker 2: or a succession.
Speaker 4: I think she's just throwing the money away that could
Speaker 4: have spent on so many other things that could have
Speaker 4: been spent on Long Island transportation to Long Island without
Speaker 4: the bridge. But throwing eight million dollars on three bus
Speaker 4: roads that go maybe four miles for three years. It
Speaker 4: blows me away. Well, we have so many other things
Speaker 4: done in the city, and I think, I honestly believe
Speaker 4: she she may not even run some dayre again, I
Speaker 4: really know she's having a child soon. I think she
Speaker 4: just she's in over ahead me presently.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I just I understand that point of view.
Speaker 2: I don't see any signs that she's not that she's
Speaker 2: not running for reelection. If she wasn't running for reelection,
Speaker 2: she wouldn't be drotting after the State House, in my opinion.
Speaker 2: But we'll see, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, a year ago it looked like probably would
Speaker 2: be an easy re election. Who who knows. We'll have
Speaker 2: to We'll have to see. We got to get through
Speaker 2: the presidential election first, that's for sure.
Speaker 4: I'll throw that's Flynn. I hope that Flynn jumps in.
Speaker 4: I hope he's listening. And I think he's got the
Speaker 4: air of the city right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, he does listen a lot, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: I'm sure he'll be happy to hear what you have
Speaker 2: to say. Brian and hyprocts. Brian appreciate, Jim good nuck,
Speaker 2: good nuck. Okay, I got Tom and Lean coming up
Speaker 2: on the other side of good room for you. Uh,
Speaker 2: particularly if your Boston resident, are you happy at this point?
Speaker 2: You might get unhappy very soon. Six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Not looking to oil your evening, but this is I
Speaker 2: think a financial fiscal reality that Boston is going to
Speaker 2: have to face, and it's just not the political leaders
Speaker 2: who face that, it's the people who face it. And
Speaker 2: if you're a Boston homeowner, feel free. I hope you've
Speaker 2: been listening and you understand what I try to do
Speaker 2: here on Nightside is layout problems so that we try
Speaker 2: to stay a little ahead of the curve. And I
Speaker 2: know the focus right now is on the presidential election,
Speaker 2: which we will talk about later on tonight. I understand that,
Speaker 2: but I also think that it's important to again, when
Speaker 2: you're talking about problems, the closest to home that the
Speaker 2: problem is, the more severely people will feel it. And
Speaker 2: you may really feel it in your real estate taxes
Speaker 2: in Boston next year, unless the mayor is somehow able
Speaker 2: to pull a miraculous rabbit out of the hat. Six
Speaker 2: Mon's seven two, five, four, ten thirty six months seven nine,
Speaker 2: three one, ten thirty. If you're not interested in this topic,
Speaker 2: that's fine. We're going to change topics at ten o'clock anyway,
Speaker 2: but I'd love to get a couple more of you
Speaker 2: in between now and ten. Coming back on night Side.
Speaker 1: Now, back to Dan ray Line from the Window World,
Speaker 1: Light Side Studios on wb Z News Radio.
Speaker 2: You know, I have often said that your most important
Speaker 2: votes are in local elections. And the reason's pretty simple.
Speaker 2: When you vote in a presidential election to one of
Speaker 2: about one hundred and seventy million people who will vote,
Speaker 2: So do the math, you're one over one hundred and
Speaker 2: seventy million. In terms of impact, that's infinitesimal. It's important,
Speaker 2: but it's infinitesimal. You're voting in a state wide election, man,
Speaker 2: there's probably three million people going to vote in a
Speaker 2: big state wide election, or something two million people, whatever
Speaker 2: the number is. But when you talk about your local
Speaker 2: whether it's a city mayor's election or a town a
Speaker 2: selectman's election, select person's election, those are votes where you
Speaker 2: have a greater impact. That's what we're talking about tonight.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Tom in Lynn. Hey, Tom, welcome
Speaker 2: back to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 5: I can't how's it going? Yeah? Yeah, A tough topic,
Speaker 5: you know, Uh, I guess I guess you get on
Speaker 5: was pretty good. You know, I'm not a numbers guy,
Speaker 5: but I was. I was kind of following them, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, numbers can Numbers can be overwhelming, particularly in
Speaker 2: the radio. But the fact of the matter is that
Speaker 2: every major city in New England and certainly in Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: is going to be in trouble. You live in Lynn.
Speaker 2: I saw today that the teachers are out, not on strike,
Speaker 2: but they were picketing and demonstrating against the expansion of
Speaker 2: a charter school. Yeah, I mean later on tonight there's
Speaker 2: supposed to be a long maybe a longshoreman strike. That
Speaker 2: is no effect everybody. Every Yeah, it's going to affect
Speaker 2: the cost of goods and services. And you know, it
Speaker 2: just seems that that we can't we can't catch a break.
Speaker 2: What's your thought on this again, You're in lind in Boston.
Speaker 2: What's going on up there?
Speaker 5: Well, it's Lynn, Boston State, it's everywhere.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: You're talking about the budget for the state fifty eight billion,
Speaker 5: and then the butt of City of Boston just shi
Speaker 5: a five billion. And I'm like, you know, if I
Speaker 5: have some kind of financial distress in my household, I
Speaker 5: can do two things. I can work more, which I
Speaker 5: don't want to do, or I can spend less. Now
Speaker 5: that the risk of sound and counterintuitive. We haven't heard
Speaker 5: anybody talking about spending less. It's just get how do
Speaker 5: we get more money out of people? More money, more money, Dan,
Speaker 5: listen to this. We talked a lot of last month
Speaker 5: or so about you know, the lower in the federal
Speaker 5: rate fifty basis points, and we're talking about inflation. Gallon
Speaker 5: of gas is a big part of a lot of
Speaker 5: people's budget, right, So what's the federal tax on a
Speaker 5: gallon of gas?
Speaker 2: Well, the federal tax on a gallon of gas, I
Speaker 2: believe is eighteen cents across the board.
Speaker 5: Very good, Very good. No, what about the state? How
Speaker 5: much of state get on a gallant gas?
Speaker 2: That depends, of course from state to state, So in
Speaker 2: massive sets, I believe it's somewhere around twenty six twenty
Speaker 2: seven cents a gallon.
Speaker 4: Well, you're good.
Speaker 5: I was incredulous, so I had to look it up
Speaker 5: three times. It's like twenty four cents.
Speaker 3: You know. It's like they don't get enough the states.
Speaker 2: In Pennsylvania, it's worse. In California.
Speaker 4: It's worse California.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they get your come you know the
Speaker 2: old saying, they get you coming and going. Uh, if
Speaker 2: you work and you make money, you you never take
Speaker 2: home all your money. The feds take some of it.
Speaker 2: The state takes some of it, so screwty takes a
Speaker 2: lot of it. At least what's so security, You're getting
Speaker 2: some theoretically money back.
Speaker 5: At some point you hope you hope this I'm repeating myself,
Speaker 5: But when don't we gonna start talking about spending less.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, most politicians don't want to talk about that because
Speaker 2: their constituents or people. You have you have half You're
Speaker 2: not half the country, but you have a You got
Speaker 2: what is it, you know, eighty billion people or whatever
Speaker 2: who are the workforce or whatever the number is who
Speaker 2: are actually employed. Then you have people who are not
Speaker 2: in the workforce. You have people older people and social security,
Speaker 2: they've earned their never earned their retirement. But then you
Speaker 2: have a lot of people who have always been relying
Speaker 2: on government, relying on government, and they never seem very
Speaker 2: really do you hear of a success story of someone
Speaker 2: getting off the public dole?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And actually every once in a while there you have
Speaker 2: those exceptions. But what happens is it becomes easy. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't have to work, I get lost covered. And
Speaker 2: the Democrats believe that the more that they give to people,
Speaker 2: the more loyal those people will be to the Democratic party,
Speaker 2: which hence keeps them in power.
Speaker 5: And that's exactly and then made you throw the whole
Speaker 5: illegal immigrants ninth sense into the mix and su an
Speaker 5: other wild card. You know, they can't even keep track
Speaker 5: of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Those there were some numbers that came out last
Speaker 2: week which is shocking the number of people who they
Speaker 2: believe are murderers and rapists who have been allowed to
Speaker 2: charge to this country. It's you, whether you're a Democrat
Speaker 2: or a Republican. You deserve the right to be able
Speaker 2: to sleep in your bed at night and feel a
Speaker 2: modicum of safety. But there's a lot of people now
Speaker 2: who live in urban areas who gunshots in their neighborhood
Speaker 2: are gunshots in their street corner. It's not an uncommon sound.
Speaker 2: And I don't know. I don't know how you fix it.
Speaker 2: I think it may be out of you know, the
Speaker 2: Democrats have one set of solutions, the Republicans have another
Speaker 2: set of solutions. There's not much mixture. The Democrats want
Speaker 2: will get rid of the guns. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you can get rid of the guns. The government said
Speaker 2: let's have more police. You know that that sounds attractive,
Speaker 2: and I'm not sure that's the answer either, it's they're
Speaker 2: all the politicians are all functioning for one thing, to
Speaker 2: get reelected.
Speaker 5: What I say about me is, Dann, I know, I
Speaker 5: know all the problems, but I don't. I just can't
Speaker 5: figure out any answers.
Speaker 2: You know, well, you know all the problems because all
Speaker 2: the problems probably exist in your neighborhood. And I suspect
Speaker 2: that if some politicians took the time to talk to
Speaker 2: people like you, that they could probably get some advice
Speaker 2: from you. I mean, most of these politicians they live
Speaker 2: in a very rarefied atmosphere there. They're they're flying down
Speaker 2: from Washington, or they're traveling around the country, and it's
Speaker 2: almost as if they think we work for them, when
Speaker 2: the truth is they're supposed to work for us.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, don't even Dan, don't even don't even
Speaker 5: go there. My neighborhood, we are a substantial, serious drug problem.
Speaker 5: I called the war councilor and uh he he.
Speaker 3: Swapped me off.
Speaker 5: He says, we'll call the police. And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 5: thanks a lot, you know, right, yeah, sure, yeah, that's.
Speaker 2: As if you, first of all, if you were if
Speaker 2: you were a normal person, you obviously know you'll call
Speaker 2: the police. But at the same time, how about him
Speaker 2: as a ward counselor making sure there's more police in
Speaker 2: your neighborhood to get the drug dealers out of your neighborhood.
Speaker 2: That's his job, not your job.
Speaker 3: But my.
Speaker 5: Best friend for thirty years was a war counselor and
Speaker 5: Lynn and they have a lot more Uh what's.
Speaker 3: The word juice influence?
Speaker 2: Influence?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that to be an influence than if I call
Speaker 5: the police or if I call my wak countsel. He calls,
Speaker 5: he says, yeah, yeah, okay, we'll get right on now,
Speaker 5: you know, and I'm talking too much. I'm gonna go
Speaker 5: a little.
Speaker 2: Thanks, I'll let you run. Thomas always who appreciate your call.
Speaker 2: I love your passion. Thank you, my friend, Thank you
Speaker 2: very much. We get back. We're going to talk about
Speaker 2: another development which I noticed today. And again we try
Speaker 2: to stay ahead of stuff here, but that's what Okay,
Speaker 2: in California they have just legalized cannabis cafes. How long
Speaker 2: before we have cannabis cafes in Massachusetts. I'm willing to
Speaker 2: ment it's going to be a lot sooner than you expect.
Speaker 2: We'll be back right after the ten o'clock news on nightside,