Boston City Council Unanimously Backs Striking Hotel Workers, Passes Veterans Tax Relief

BOSTON -- October 23, 2024, Boston City Council unanimously backs striking Unite Here Local 26 hotel workers and passes automatic veterans' property tax relief. The full 13-member council, presided over by Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, voted unanimously in roll call to adopt a solidarity resolution with Local 26 members striking at the Hilton Logan Airport and Park Plaza, with lead sponsor Gabriela Coletta Zapata declaring "in a union city like Boston, one job should be enough," and Benjamin J. Weber citing an MIT study putting Massachusetts's living wage at roughly $27 to $28 an hour. The council also passed Docket 1303 in a new draft, tying veterans' property tax exemptions to the Consumer Price Index beginning in fiscal year 2026, in FY2024, exemptions totaled $1,123,969.68 for 1,156 veterans. A corrected $50 million Commonwealth Builder housing grant was approved, bringing Boston's cumulative total from the program to $100 million and expected to fund at least 300 additional deed-restricted homeownership units. The council also recognized October 26 as Intersex Awareness Day following remarks by MRKH Organization founder Esther Lidoff, and appropriated $2,225,000 for a feasibility study on the Pauline Agassiz-Shaw/Charles H. Taylor Elementary School in Mattapan in a second and final vote.