To: Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Boston City Councilors, Governor Deval Patrick and Legislators
Whereas: Mayor Menino and the Boston City Council have granted Liberty Mutual $24 million in property tax breaks and Governor Patrick has given Liberty Mutual $22.5 million in state subsidies to build a new office tower in Boston near its existing office in Boston.
Whereas: These subsidies are being granted to a corporation so wealthy that it testified to City Council that it could build the $300 million tower with cash on hand, and is on the Forbes 100 list, earning over a billion dollars a year in profit.
Whereas: This subsidy money is being taken from essential city and state services including schools, libraries, parks, transit, youth jobs and community centers, even as their funding is being slashed.
We ask that the city and state revoke the $24 million in property tax breaks and $22.5 million in state subsidies granted to Liberty Mutual for the construction of a new office tower. Redirecting these funds to city and state services would make a real difference in people’s lives.
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BUT on the other hand 47 million bucks is peanuts in the grand scheme of things. So what do you do if you’re the governor of MA?
I say do the math before you make any rash decisions. This office tower could be a job magnet. From the blue collar jobs building and maintaining it to its white collar occupants after it’s been built, right down to the food vendors and the like once it’s up and running.
Take your personal feelings out of this. Forget for a second that this is a Forbes 100 Company that makes a billion a year in profits … The deal is we spare this Company $47 million in property taxes (spread out over time) in return Liberty Mutual pays for the construction of an Office Tower and everyone we need to build it. Then they are going to staff the building … My feeling is Patrick and Menino looked at the #’s and see a net gain in tax revenue.
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You said something in your post that made me think …
How long will 47 million dollars make a difference in people’s lives Eli? When you are done cutting it up and distributing it out to Education, Library’s, Parks, and everything else; for how long will people’s lives be improved on an extra $47 million dollars? Until the next years budget comes out? Then what?
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Looks like Eli is stepping away from this one.