Josh Kraft accuses Boston Mayor Wu of hiding White Stadium taxpayer value till after election

Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft seized on Mayor Michelle Wu’s newest delay in releasing last taxpayer prices of her administration’s public-private rehab of White Stadium as proof she’s hiding that determine till after the election.

Kraft stated Wednesday that Wu’s newest remarks on the radio this week, when she pushed again the timeline for releasing a last price range for the undertaking from this summer time to “later this calendar year” after “all construction bids are finalized” are indicative of what he sees because the mayor’s lack of transparency round how taxpayer {dollars} are being spent on the professional soccer stadium rehab.

“You know what that means — it means she won’t disclose these figures until after the election,” Kraft stated at a press convention he convened at Franklin Park’s White Stadium. “Now this shouldn’t be surprising. From the get-go, Michelle Wu has tried to downplay the cost of this project.”

The town’s half of the roughly $200 million undertaking practically doubled, from $50 million to $91 million, on the finish of final 12 months. An inner metropolis doc revealed by Kraft final month confirmed the associated fee to taxpayers was projected to climb as excessive as $172 million, a possible Wu acknowledged however described as a “worst-case scenario” on the time.

Final month, Wu acknowledged taxpayer prices are more likely to exceed that $91 million determine and that the town would have a clearer image of what the ultimate price range could be after placing completely different points of building out to bid, which she stated started this summer time. She doubled down on that timeline earlier this month, saying on a radio program that “we should know in a few weeks.”

However Wu backed off that timeline on Tuesday. The mayor didn’t present an up to date value estimate, saying the town will proceed placing out building bids this fall, and that the market will dictate prices. So far as when last prices would materialize, Wu would solely say, “Later this calendar year, the bids should all be out the door.”

Wu wouldn’t decide to releasing the ultimate price range for the town’s taxpayer-funded half of the undertaking earlier than the November election, when talking with reporters after an unrelated marketing campaign occasion she held at a downtown enterprise Wednesday — however defended her administration’s monetary transparency across the plan to this point.

“Everything that we do as a city is public,” Wu stated. “We are subject to transparency laws. And at the point where numbers are finalized, they are public and available.”

Wu stated the town has pegged demolition at $5 million, and that different prices can be shared as they turn out to be obtainable, with the “larger package,” or last price range being launched “this year as well” when it “becomes finalized according to the process we use for every single city building” undertaking.

“The transparency around this project has been more than any other public project,” Wu stated.

She talked about public conferences which have been held and a publicly-released metropolis lease settlement with the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League crew set to share use of White Stadium with Boston Public Faculties student-athletes.

“What all of this politicization of this is doing, really is contributing to a sense that our communities are very familiar with,” Wu stated. “This stadium has been falling down for 40-plus years. … Yes, we are putting public dollars to a really important and big project. It’s one that’s been talked about for 40 years, and this is the first time that there’s real concrete action to make it happen.”

Kraft stated, nonetheless, that the general public funds budgeted for the undertaking “can and should be better spent on a host of important priorities,” reminiscent of housing manufacturing, residential tax aid for seniors and public college enchancment initiatives.

“The time has come for Michelle Wu to stop hiding behind process and bid deadlines,” Kraft stated. “Her lack of transparency is completely unacceptable.”

Kraft stated he would cancel the present contract with Boston Unity Soccer Companions, which owns the brand new NWSL crew, the Boston Legacy, and develop a high-school-only stadium rehab plan, which he and different undertaking opponents favor.

Whereas Kraft sought to highlight Wu’s perceived lack of economic transparency on White Stadium, he was as a substitute largely peppered by reporters with questions on his personal unfulfilled promise to launch his tax returns and monetary statements.

Kraft has stated his 2024 tax return is on extension. That places his IRS submitting deadline at Oct. 15, after the September preliminary election.

“I will release my financial information when it’s ready, and on my timeline,” Kraft stated. “I said I’d do it and I’ll do it.”

When requested why he wouldn’t launch his 2023 tax return within the meantime, Kraft, son of the billionaire New England Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft, reiterated his remarks, including in seen frustration, “If I say I’m going to do something, I do.”