Keller: Mayor Wu’s Prop. 2 1⁄2 follies

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For an incumbent politician, there are multiple ways to interpret a decisive re-election win.

You can see it as a fresh start, an opportunity to learn from both the successes and failures of your first term.

Or you can take it as an unqualified mandate to indulge your ego and ideology, even if that means heedlessly wading waist-deep into political quicksand.

President Trump chose the latter path with DOGE, tariffs and ICE overreach. And his polar opposite, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, seems intent on doing the same.

Witness her post-election denunciation of Proposition 2 ½, the property-tax limitation law installed by a 1980 initiative petition in a Wu-like landslide vote. By the mid-1980s, Prop. 2 ½ was widely-credited with bringing an unaccountable political establishment to heel by requiring voter approval of major property-tax hikes.

But allowing voters a veto over local tax increases is an idea that no longer works, says Wu, who casts Prop. 2 ½ as a weapon of class warfare, “put in place through significant pressure and advocacy from the business community against municipal governments’ advocacy.” Good vs. evil – get it?

The mayor isn’t the only official chafing at Prop. 2 ½’s constraints, just the most outspokenly radical about it. “I wouldn’t put the thumb up or down,” says Massachusetts Municipal Association head Adam Chapdelaine. “I would say, ‘Look at how it’s working and let’s have a conversation on whether it can work in a different way.’” Gov. Maura Healey - whose dormant Municipal Empowerment Act proposal lets communities boost local option taxes (including the hated auto excise tax, which was slashed by Prop. 2 ½) – is even more cautious, telling GBH Radio recently “I’ll review anything that comes my way” but “I respect the will of the voters on that.”

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9:00 | Gov. Maura Healey offers remarks at MIT’s quantum initiative launch. | MIT, 51 Vassar Street, Building 45, Cambridge

9:30 | The Senate Committee on the Census holds hybrid informational hearing about patterns of undercounts and overcounts in the census. The agenda includes informational presentations and Q&As from Joseph Salvo, senior advisor for the National Conference on Citizenship, and Susan Strate, senior manager of the UMass Donahue Institute’s Population Estimates Program. Jordan Berg Powers, former executive director of Mass Alliance was also invited to speak. | Room B-1, State House, Boston

11:00 | Gov. Maura Healey offers remarks with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll at Colonial Navy of Massachusetts 250th celebration. | Grand Staircase, State House, Boston

12:00 | Boston Mayor Michelle Wu holds a press conference with city officials to outline Boston’s plans for winter storms and available resources for residents. | 400 Frontage Rd., Boston | Livestream

6:00 | A Better City holds its Norman B. Leventhal Awards. This year’s honorees are Carole Charnow, Boston Children’s Museum president and CEO; Walter Armstrong, former senior vice president of capital facilities and engineering at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; John Messervy, former corporate director of design and construction at Mass General Brigham; John Rattigan, partner at DLA Piper; and Action for Equity’s Pamela Bush. | Boston Harbor Hotel, 70 Rowes Wharf, Boston

The battle over Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s property tax shift proposal is moving online from City Hall offices and State House hallways. Wu is taking to Reddit to answer commenters’ questions about her proposal, which remains stalled by senators, including South Boston’s Nick Collins, who called it an “effort to circumvent Prop 2 1/2, which would remove the people’s right to vote on local tax increases.”

Wu has warned that taxes on the average single family homeowner will go up 13%, or $780, if the measure isn’t passed. “Senator Collins and his colleagues know how to fix this. They just voted to pass Watertown’s residential tax relief home rule petition in 2023 without any debate or objection,” she wrote in the post soliciting the questions. Her answers are expected to get posted starting Monday.

Wu has also posted to social media accounts on BlueSky and Instagram urging her supporters to reach out to lawmakers about the proposal, which is in its third go-around on Beacon Hill, after twice clearing the House but failing in the Senate. 

There’s still plenty happening at City Hall, however. Boston unions and community groups that support Wu’s proposal are holding a press conference Monday, ahead of a City Council hearing on tax classification. The press conference will feature representatives from the Greater Boston Building Trades, UNITE HERE Local 26, the Greater Boston Labor Council, the Boston Teachers Union, AFSCME Council 93 and Mass. Senior Action Council. – Gintautas Dumcius

CONVENTION CONTROVERSY: The board of the Mass. Convention Center Authority is looking to fire the quasi-public agency’s CEO after he welcomed two Beacon Hill probes into procurement practice and alleged racial bias, the CEO’s attorney said. – Boston Herald

CASINO MITIGATION FUNDS: State lawmakers again redirected gambling revenue meant for casino impact mitigation, as city and town officials say they face budget strains. – CommonWealth Beacon

‘MISTAKENLY INFORMED’: Healey administration officials said they “mistakenly informed” the Wachusett Regional High School and South Shore Vocational Technical that they wouldn’t be receiving funding for a financial literacy program due to locals’ opposition to the MBTA Communities law. – Boston Herald

FUROR OVER NATIVITY SCENE: ICE acting director Todd Lyons is fuming after a nativity scene at a Catholic church in Dedham was set up to protest his agency’s immigrant removal procedures. The Archdiocese of Boston expressed its own unhappiness, and Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, also leapt into the fray, stating that ICE does not separate families. McLaughlin’s claim is undercut by a ProPublica report that showed 600 immigrant children have been put in government shelters since the start of 2025. – MassLive

CONSTRUCTION HALTED: “Green” cement maker Sublime Systems is hitting the “pause” button on its first commercial facility, located in Holyoke, after a pullback in $87 million in federal funding. – Boston Business Journal

CITIZENSHIP CEREMONY: Immigration officials are pulling aside naturalization applicants, including ones who headed inside Faneuil Hall last week to pledge allegiance to the U.S. The officials said they were held back due to their countries of origin, such as Haiti. – GBH News

E-BIKE REGS: E-bike regulations proposed by Plymouth’s Select Board are drawing the ire of older people who use them for recreational purposes. – Plymouth Independent

ALL POLITICS IS…: National politics melding together with Holyoke politics is one possible explanation for several election losses and new momentum for city government reforms. – Western Mass. Politics & Insight

QUINCY TAX RATE: As Quincy officials move to set the tax rate for fiscal 2026, there are questions as to whether an unfunded $16 million pension payment could hit the city’s taxpayers. – Patriot Ledger

VOTING WITH FEET: One in three Massachusetts voters say they’ve considered leaving the Bay State, citing the cost of living and condition of the roads, according to a poll from November. – Boston Globe

WMASS DIVERSITY: Elected officials in Chicopee and West Springfield are less diverse than those in Springfield in Holyoke after the last election. – MassLive

Employer sentiment remains below 50 points for 9th consecutive month

Dems continue calls for Hegseth’s ouster

Gov. Healey sits down with reporters from Latino Newsletter and El Planeta

Hiring is underway for Hasbro’s new Boston office 

Steamship Authority ferries see ticket system upgrade

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