Author: bmrb

The December 9th report on 2015 school performance levels from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) shows little change for Boston Public Schools (BPS) from 2014, due mainly to the adoption of the PARCC exam in grades three through eight. This year, 66 BPS schools (64.1%) are classified as underperforming, (Level 3 or below), up from 65 schools (63.7%) in 2014. In the current school year, 30,439 students attend an underperforming school, which represents 61.8% of the BPS student body attending schools assigned performance levels. (continued . . .)

The third consecutive year of strong growth, new building construction, and a full parcel-specific revaluation combined to boost Boston’s taxable property value to $128B as of January 1, 2015. Boston’s FY16 taxable value increased by 15.6%, up from 10.9% in FY15. The average single family tax bill is $3,530, a $10 or 0.28% increase over FY15. Approved by the state on December 17, these changes will be reflected in the third quarter tax bills that are due by February 1.
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Mayor Walsh signed an Executive Order on December 9th which modified the City’s Inclusionary Development Policy (IDP) to create more affordable units from housing development. The Executive Order keeps the current requirement for building affordable units on-site, but increases the cost to developers of cashing out, or building affordable units off-site in some areas. The BRA Board approved the new IDP at its meeting on December 10th. The new IDP will take effect on January 1, 2016. (continued . . .)

Receipt by 46 Boston medical, educational and research institutions of $1.70 billion in medical research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in FY14 topped all other cities in the country for total NIH funding for the 20th consecutive year. Tempering that good news is the fact that Boston’s total NIH funding has declined in each of the last two years ($1.78B in FY12, $1.72B in FY13, and $1.70B in FY14). This record for Boston over 20 years highlights the importance of these nonprofit institutions to the economic vitality of the City. (continued . . .)