Most people assume their property tax bill reflects what their home is actually worth.

However, in Boston, that is not always the case.

The city decides how much to raise in property taxes each year, but it is not always transparent about the process. That total is then divided based on what officials say your home is worth. When those valuations are off, the system does not correct itself.

Instead, it shifts the burden to everyday people.

Working- and middle-class homeowners are currently assessed at a much higher rate of their market value than the wealthiest neighborhoods.

For example, in November, a townhouse in Beacon Hill sold for $21 million. When the city’s assessing department released its valuations in January, that same property was listed at only $12 million.

That is a huge tax break for the 1%. In other words, the owner is paying taxes on $12 million, not the $21 million the home is actually worth.

Now look at the other end.

A home in Roslindale sold for $430,000. The assessing department is taxing it as if it were worth $489,100.

In one case, the system locks in a lower value for a high-end property. In another, it drives up the value of a modest home beyond what it actually sold for.

That is not fair nor transparent.

Right now, working-class homeowners, particularly in Boston’s Black neighborhoods, are carrying a greater share of the city’s tax burden.

City Hall’s solution has been to point to averages. Officials note that overall property valuations rose by roughly 2% across the city. But averages hide the truth about what’s happening in Boston.

Over the past decade, Boston has seen a steady displacement of Black families, many of whom have moved to surrounding communities such as Brockton, Randolph and Stoughton as housing costs have risen.

In communities like Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury and parts of the South End, assessments are rising closer to 10% every year.

Meanwhile, in Boston’s wealthiest neighborhoods such as Beacon Hill and Back Bay, values have largely plateaued.

The neighborhoods seeing the sharpest increases are the same communities shaped by decades of redlining, segregation and disinvestment.

So, when the system overvalues lower-cost homes and undervalues high-end ones, it does more than shift tax bills.

It reinforces disparities that have been in place for generations. Higher tax burdens leave less room to save, invest or build equity and make it harder for families to maintain housing over time.

This may look like numbers on paper. In reality, it changes lives.

The Boston Public Health Commission has found that life expectancy can differ by more than 20 years among Boston neighborhoods, with shorter lives concentrated in predominantly Black communities and longer lives in the city’s wealthiest areas.

Housing stability, financial strain and quality of life all play a significant role in those outcomes.

Renters are not immune. As tax burdens rise, costs are passed through in higher rents. That makes it harder to save, harder to stay and harder to get ahead.

This issue has been at the center of a never-ending dialogue between the City of Boston and the Legislature.

While the city proposed legislation that failed to fix the same problem in Boston two decades ago, it has ignored the most significant inequity in Boston’s tax code: disparities in how homes are assessed.

At the same time, we in the state Senate passed a tax relief package to mitigate the Boston’s property tax increase to help homeowners who experienced their property taxes go up.

City councilors Brian Worrell and Miniard Culpepper, representing the communities most affected by these disparities, are cosponsors of a hearing order to examine the growing gap between market value and assessed value for residential properties. Every member of the City Council signed on.

Recent op-eds in The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald have highlighted this issue. But concern alone is not enough.

As the state senator representing neighborhoods including Dorchester, Mattapan and parts of Roxbury, I hear from residents who are trying to stay in the homes they have built their lives in.

They are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for a system that works the same for everyone.

Concern has been raised at the City Council level, and action has been taken at the state level. But without real reform in how properties are assessed, homeowners will continue to see higher tax bills year after year.

Boston cannot claim to be a city of equity while its tax system tells a different story.

If we do not fix this, the same communities will continue to pay more than their fair share.

Fixing Boston’s tax system starts with making sure the wealthiest finally carry their share of the burden.

Senator Nick Collins serves as a member of the Massachusetts Seante representing the 1st Suffolk District.