Author: bmrb

The School Committee Nominating Panel met on September 29 to begin the process of submitting vetted candidates to Mayor Walsh for his appointment to the seats now held by Meg Campbell and Miren Uriarte whose terms expire on January 4, 2016. Both members may reapply for a four-year term. This year the Panel is required to submit its recommendations to the Mayor no later than December 7, 2015. The Mayor must make his appointments no later than January 4, 2016. (continued . . .)

The City of Boston and its 44 bargaining units are starting to gear up for the next round of collective bargaining negotiations. Practically all of the current contracts will expire on June 30 or August 31, 2016. Even so, the Walsh Administration and Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society still have not settled on a contract to replace the contract that expired on June 30, 2010. (continued . . .)

The City of Boston’s payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) program for large private tax-exempt institutions resulted in total payments of $27.9M in FY15, an increase of $12.8M or 84.4% over the actual receipts in FY11, the last year of the previous program. The FY15 total is also $1.9M over the prior year’s payments. However, receipts as a percent of requests have fallen from 90.7% in FY12 to 68.6% in FY15. Separate from this program is the Massport PILOT payment of $17.9M in FY15. (continued . . .)

Mayor Walsh’s housing plan envisions increasing the amount of City-controlled affordable housing resources by $20M annually. Legislative modification to the current Linkage Program was one general suggestion offered. Also being discussed is change to the City’s Inclusionary Development Program (IDP). Any modification to the Linkage or IDP programs should be part of a more comprehensive plan to support affordable and middle income housing and should not be addressed separately. (continued . . .)