Proposition 2 ½ is considered a “bedrock” of budget cycles throughout Massachusetts cities and towns, due to the limit it places on how much property tax revenue they can collect, as one research group put it earlier this year.
But Boston Mayor Michelle Wu yesterday took a few digs at the law, which was implemented in 1982 after voter approval. The law limits cities and towns to raising no more than 2.5 percent of the assessed value of all taxable property taxes, plus new growth, but they can request an override from voters.
Boston, which has a larger commercial sector than most, has never put an override question on the ballot. But in the pandemic’s aftermath, more communities in other parts of the state are seeking property tax votes, after ballot overrides hit a 30-year low in 2018. Proponents of Prop 2 ½, as it’s often called, say it offers taxpayers predictability, and pleases voters sick of high property taxes…