State Sen. Nick Collins said affordability concerns are driving frustration across his First Suffolk district that includes much of Dorchester and South Boston with rising property tax bills and the lingering fallout from the closure of Carney Hospital among his priorities.
“People feel like they’re not getting ahead,” Collins said in an interview on the DotLife podcast hosted by Erin Caldwell that was posted today. Collins said sharp increases in assessments that have translated into higher tax bills for many homeowners have hit his constituents hard.
In neighborhoods like Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, Collins said, modest homes are often assessed closer to—or even above—their market value. Meanwhile, high-end properties in areas like Back Bay and Beacon Hill can be assessed far below what they actually sell for.
“The burden gets put on the middle class,” Collins said.
He pointed to recent reporting highlighting multimillion-dollar properties assessed at a fraction of their sale price, while working- and middle-class homeowners see steep valuation increases year over year.
Collins has filed legislation aimed at correcting those disparities and is also backing proposals to use the city’s surplus funds to provide direct relief to taxpayers. He said the current approach—raising taxes to the maximum allowable levy while holding large reserves—has only added to the strain.
“It’s cold, your heating bill is up, and then you get a double tax bill,” he said. “It’s unnecessary and unfair.”
Collins has been sharply critical Mayor Michelle Wu’s attempts to shift more of the tax burden onto commercial properties, arguing that a similar strategy failed in Boston decades ago and could ultimately backfire on small businesses.
On another key Dorchester issue, Collins said the closure of Carney Hospital continues to leave a major void in healthcare access for Dorchester residents—one he believes the state should have acted to prevent.
“That was a failure,” he said on the podcast. Collins, who was one of several elected officials who lobbied Gov. Healey’s administration to intervene on Carney’s behalf, noted that relying on a 30-minute emergency access standard—used in rural areas—doesn’t reflect the needs of urban neighborhoods like Dorchester.
“We’re not Wyoming,” he said.
“I fought it tooth and nail with a bunch of my colleagues and community activists,” Collins said. “I think the state could have stepped in to provide some transition as they did other hospitals and use tools available. That didn’t happen and I do think that the state needs to be a partner in the solution long term, particularly to balance out healthcare use and healthcare use that serves the community.”
Collins also discussed his idea to expand UMass Boston’s nursing program and potentially establish a satellite campus at the former hospital site as part of a larger redevelopment on the Carney campus.
The concept would pair classroom training with hands-on clinical experience through partnerships with community health centers—many of which already serve Collins’ district.
“It’s a pipeline,” he said, describing a model that would both train new nurses and deliver care to underserved communities.
Critically, Collins said any redevelopment should include a clinical component—and potentially emergency services—to help fill the gap left by Carney’s closure.
“If we can’t do it in the medical capital of the United States, something’s wrong,” he added.
