was prompted in part by the first citywide property reassessment in three years, which saw residential property values increase 31% on average and much more in rapidly gentrifying areas., and some lawmakers including Council members Kenyatta Johnson and Brian O’Neill have since pushed to increase it to its legal maximum of $90,000.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who introduced the cut, said he was motivated by one question: “How do we put people in a position to provide a quality living for themselves as well as their family?” Members of the Kenney administration worked hand in hand with lawmakers to approve the budget in a process overseen by Council President Darrell L. Clarke that involved an unusually low level of friction between the executive and legislative branches.
Almost all of the committee votes Wednesday night were unanimous voice votes, but Council members Helen Gym, Kendra Brooks, and Jamie Gauthier voted no on the wage and business tax cuts. Council’s progressive trio of Gym, Brooks, and Gauthier were largely sidelined from the final round of negotiations over taxes. Many of their spending priorities, however, made it into the final budget, including rental assistance and quality-of-life issues like abandoned car removal. Brooks’ signature “wealth tax” proposal never received a vote.
“The tax cuts were always pitched to us as about small business,” Gauthier said. “These are cuts that would benefit much larger businesses, too, and at a time when we’re trying to rebound.”