A day after the Boston City Council approved Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposal to add a new tax on real estate sales of $2 million or more to fund affordable housing, Gov. Charlie Baker said he generally does not “support these sorts of things” and pointed to federal relief dollars available for housing.
During an appearance on GBH’s Boston Public Radio, Baker said he mostly supports home-rule petitions backed by local officials. “It’s very unusual for us not to,” he said. “This is an exception.”
Baker also said his administration is “engaging” with federal officials about trying to create a process to forgive jobless benefit overpayments, and that U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh “understands the seriousness” of the issue and why it needs to be addressed quickly.
Asked by a caller who described himself as a “total fan” of Baker’s when he would run for president, the 65-year-old lame-duck governor said his family wants to spend more time with him “now that I’m Medicare-eligible” and said he thinks “the likelihood that I would do anything else in elected politics pretty slim.”
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