Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn was caught off-guard by Mayor Michelle Wu’s plan to convene a committee to address the budgetary impacts of falling commercial values, given that his push for a similar commission has stalled for two years.

Flynn accused the mayor of obstructing his push for a Blue Ribbon Commission, to the detriment of city finances, due to Wu’s “pride of authorship” of the idea for a committee that she says would explore alternative revenue sources beyond property taxes, which make up roughly three-quarters of city budgetary revenue.

“For the last two years, I have passed unanimous resolutions at the Boston City Council to establish a Blue Ribbon Commission to address our long-term fiscal issues, falling commercial property values and 70% dependence on property taxes,” Flynn said last week in a statement to the Herald.

“We would likely have recommendations today had we not wasted two years’ time,” the councilor added. “Leadership can never be about pride of authorship. Obstructing other ideas that aren’t our own has only hurt the city.”

Wu said last month that she plans to convene a “time-limited task force of community and business stakeholders” in the new year “in order to really dig deep into revenue options for the city of Boston and put forward some additional recommendations in the big picture at that point.”

The mayor announced her plans for a task force in early December when she renewed her pitch for the state Senate to pass her stalled tax shift legislation to stave off the 13% property tax increase the average single-family homeowner is projected to see this year, due, in part, to falling commercial property values.

Commercial values are projected to fall this year by 6%, while residential values are expected to increase by 2%, which, by way of the city’s budgetary structure that relies heavily on property tax revenue, is pushing more of the tax burden onto homeowners.

The state Senate, which killed the mayor’s legislation in late 2024 and opted not to take action on it all last year, has advanced two alternative tax relief measures put forward by state Sens. Nick Collins and William Brownsberger.

Flynn, who has voted against the mayor’s legislation, pointed out that the task force she announced to address the post-pandemic trend of falling commercial values driven by remote work and empty office space sounds remarkably similar to the Blue Ribbon Commission he’s proposed that passed the City Council twice.

His commission, which would “study and address downtown office vacancies and city revenue,” was approved by the Council on March 6, 2024 and June 11, 2025, Flynn said.

Flynn said the mayor did not inform him of her plans to form her own task force aimed at accomplishing the same goal as his recommended commission.

Wu’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Flynn’s remarks.

Mayor Wu set to take victory lap at her second-term inauguration

The mayor is set to kick off her inauguration week — rather than just the one day — on Sunday with a press event at the Museum of Fine Arts, as part of the “Boston Family Days Celebration.”

The inauguration ceremony is set to take place on Monday at 10 a.m. A media advisory sent out by Wu’s office last Friday indicates that her remarks will likely largely center around touting what she sees as the major accomplishments of her first, four-year term.

A day prior, Wu is set to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, where she will, per her schedule, celebrate the success of her Boston Family Days initiative, which offers all Boston schoolchildren and their families free access to 20 cultural institutions on the first two Sundays of every month.

The initiative attracted controversy in its infancy, when, as a pilot program, it was limited to children who attend the Boston Public Schools.

It launched in February 2024 as BPS Sundays and was expanded to all city schoolchildren by the end of that year. Wu has positioned the program as a major accomplishment of her administration.

The mayor is also expected to lay out her priorities for her second term in office at the inauguration, which is being hosted by the City of Boston.

Wu was reelected in November. The race had been uncontested since September, when she defeated her principal challenger Josh Kraft, a son of the billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, by 49 points in the primary, leading him to suspend his campaign two days later.

Related Articles

Pols & Politics: Louijeune out as Boston City Council president, Council to cement rubber-stamp status

Pols & Politics: GOP gubernatorial endorsements galore

New investigation launched into alleged corruption, destruction of evidence at Convention Center

Pols & Politics: Healey staffer takes ‘a digger’

Pols & Politics: Disgraced ex-Boston city councilor sprung from jail, mayor shakes up staff

Also being sworn in this week are the 13 city councilors. There will be one newcomer, Miniard Culpepper, a longtime local pastor who will fill the Roxbury-centric District 7 seat vacated by disgraced former Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson.

Fernandes Anderson resigned in early July after she was convicted on federal corruption charges tied to a $7,000 City Hall kickback scheme. She spent a month in federal prison before being released in November.

After the inauguration, all eyes will turn to the noon City Council meeting, where Councilors Brian Worrell and Gabriela Coletta Zapata will vie for the Council presidency.

Coletta Zapata claimed on Nov. 10 that she had secured the necessary seven votes from her colleagues, but Worrell opted to stay in the race and said Monday he was still working to secure the additional two votes he needed to lead the body.