A commercial property tax hike, as approved yesterday by the Massachusetts House, will hurt businesses in Boston at a time when the city’s post-Covid economy needs all the help it can get. There’s little doubt about this. But … but the business community needs to calm down a bit. Politicians do this all the time when they have to choose between raising taxes on voters or raising taxes on businesses. 

Mayor Menino raised commercial rates in 2004 and repeated it (to a lesser extent) in 2009. (You gotta love the Herald’s “Scrooge” headline in the latter link.) And now Mayor Wu is pushing a similar tax plan. She’ll win no Profile in Courage Award for doing so. Though she’ll try, she’ll also win no Most Moral Person award. But she will win politically. And the business community will survive.