BOSTON — Mayor Michelle Wu’s push for special authority to rewrite Boston’s property-tax burden got slammed into a wall on Beacon Hill Thursday, when the Massachusetts Senate voted 33–5 to reject the proposal in a public roll-call defeat.

The measure would have allowed Boston to place a larger share of the city’s property-tax levy on commercial property owners in order to reduce the size of the residential increase homeowners are facing this year. Supporters argued that post-pandemic shifts in downtown property values have tilted more of the burden onto homeowners, and that the city needed flexibility to soften the jolt.

Instead, the Senate sent a blunt message. Only five senators voted yes — Mike Rush, Sal DiDomenico, Liz Miranda, Lydia Edwards, and Patricia Jehlen — while the other 33 voted no, shutting the plan down decisively.

During debate, senators pressed on what the change could mean for businesses, including whether small businesses would have protections if the commercial share rose. Supporters pointed to Boston City Council backing and referenced other city programs aimed at helping small businesses, but the chamber ultimately moved on.

Rather than adopt Wu’s Boston-specific request, the Senate advanced a different approach: statewide legislation allowing cities and towns to offer homeowner tax credits in years when property taxes rise by more than 10%. The move let lawmakers address “tax shock” concerns broadly while refusing to give Boston a unique tax lever.

The rejection also lands amid political blowback over City Hall priorities, with opponents pointing to high-cost projects as taxpayers brace for bigger bills. Those flashpoints include the White Stadium redevelopment — where reports have cited the city’s share rising from $50 million to about $91 million — and the proposal to rebuild or renovate Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, which has been publicly discussed in the $700 million to $750 million range.

And on Beacon Hill, the margin wasn’t just a loss — it was a message. The kind of blowout that fuels fresh State House talk that Wu hasn’t just lost a vote, she’s lost the room: that the bridge with the Senate isn’t “strained,” it’s burned. And after a 33–5 roll call like that, the chatter turns cutting — not about what major policy she can pass next, but whether she could get the chamber to rubber-stamp even the easiest, sleepwalk-through items that normally glide by on courtesy, like renaming a little bridge or tacking someone’s name onto a state building — because Thursday’s vote made her look less like a mayor with leverage and more like a mayor getting shown the door.