News

“A tax falloff representing 10 percent of Boston’s total spending is too large to be offset by creative accounting or other kinds of financial management,” the report said. “The city will need to raise new revenue or reduce its medium-term spending plans.

One of the biggest unanswered questions amid Boston’s ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is how much slumping commercial real estate values could wallop city finances. A new report out Thursday aims to answer just that.

In a year when tax revenues are projected to grow only a little, the estimated $1.3 billion from the 4 percent surcharge on income over $1 million was the only area of the budget where policymakers could have some fun.

"The state has been flush with cash for a couple years now. We knew it was going to come to an end. The question was when? The answer is now."

After revenues failed to hit benchmarks for six straight months, it was clear “the governor needed to do something like this,” Evan Horowitz told Playbook.

Expenses are piling up on Beacon Hill amid a string of disappointing tax revenue reports. Radio Boston talks with Evan Horowitz of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University.

Although the law requires that at least 10 percent of a community’s CPA funds go to each use, a report issued last year by cSPA and GBREB found that less than 1 in 20 CPA projects has been dedicated to the creation of new homes.

However, more than a third of the 190 communities that have joined the CPA have failed to invest the required 10 percent of CPA funds in affordable housing, according to a recent study by cSPA

Those concerns burst into public view earlier this year, when a report produced by cSPA...found that only a fifth of CPA projects have been dedicated to housing that’s affordable for, and restricted to, low-income people.