Boston City Council adopted Mayor Michelle Wu’s amended $4.9 billion budget for the next fiscal year after a 6–6 deadlock on rejection earlier this season, a storming of the council chambers in early June, arrests, and a final fight over transportation layoffs
When protesters stormed the Boston City Council chambers in early June, the budget season felt less like a spreadsheet and more like a breaking point. The meeting was disrupted for more than two hours. Eight people were arrested before council could resume its work.
On Wednesday. the council accepted Mayor Michelle Wu’s amended budget proposal for the next fiscal year. which begins next week. The adopted plan totals $4.9 billion and ends a contentious season in which councilors and activists repeatedly clashed over proposed cuts—especially when those cuts risked hitting jobs and programs for young people and seniors.
The council’s acceptance was the last step in a process shaped by both legal limits and political timing. City Council does not have the power to change the overall spending amount proposed by the mayor. It can amend individual line items—and that’s where the fight landed.
This week’s budget is the product of an amendment package the council submitted earlier this month. making $11.8 million worth of changes to Wu’s budget. Those changes restored grant funding in several areas. including $1.8 million for rental vouchers. $750. 000 for youth jobs. $500. 000 for senior programming. and $100. 000 for the Office of Food Justice.
Wu responded to the council’s amendments last week, accepting nearly all of them. One item she pushed back on was a proposed $1.4 million reduction to the Boston Transportation Department’s personnel line item. Wu said that specific cut would have led to layoffs of employees including parking enforcement officers. transportation planners. administrative staff. and workers who install signage.
Instead of accepting that reduction, Wu proposed a different way to reach the same amount. She said the reduction would come from the Transportation Department’s contracted services line item rather than the personnel budget.
“To absorb this cut, the department will seek to amend contract payment schedules, extend timelines, and adjust service levels,” Wu wrote to councilors.
Councilor John FitzGerald. who proposed the initial cut to the personnel line item. said he never meant to support something that would lead to layoffs. During Wednesday’s meeting. he said the administration initially told him the Transportation Department’s personnel budget could absorb the cuts. Then, FitzGerald said, the administration later cited a “miscalculation” and told him the line-item change would actually lead to layoffs.
“Our intent was always in the way of keeping as many jobs as possible for our city workers. I know we’ve gotten some colorful emails and phone calls in the office from certain departments in the last week or two. ” FitzGerald said. “Just wanted to clarify that miscalculation on the administration’s part to put us in this position.”.
Wu’s press secretary. Marcela Dwork. responded to FitzGerald’s comments by pointing to how the administration had described the impacts of the council’s amendments. Dwork told The Boston Globe that the potential impacts were outlined in a letter the administration sent to the council earlier this month.
“We provided this information in writing several weeks ago to ensure full public transparency, including that cuts to personnel would result in layoffs,” Dwork told the outlet.
Council effectively adopted the budget on Wednesday without a formal vote. No council member moved to override Wu’s change.
The season’s volatility started earlier, with a proposal Wu unveiled in April. She said the city was facing a “challenging” financial situation due to inflationary pressures, rising costs, and slowing revenues. Officials said the city was also dealing with substantial police overtime pay, snow removal costs, and rapidly rising healthcare costs.
The budget represented a spending increase of about 2 percent—the lowest year-over-year increase since the aftermath of the global financial crisis in fiscal year 2010. It contrasted with a previous year when the budget grew by about 4.4 percent. Multiple programs were set to feel the strain, including one that funds youth employment during the school year. Wu later announced a partnership with several private organizations to secure hundreds of school-year jobs for teens. but discontent did not fade.
By May, several councilors began considering an outright rejection of Wu’s budget. The hope was that rejecting it could pressure the mayor to increase overall spending levels. Wu said she could not increase spending and that she would be able to re-submit the budget with no changes if it was rejected.
When councilors finally voted on the rejection, the council deadlocked 6-6, splitting between councilors seen as Wu’s allies and those more critical of the mayor.
The budget process then carried those fractures into the chamber itself. During the early June vote on the amendment package, protesters chanted “you failed us” and held up a sign reading: “Save our youth jobs, city funds now, not empty promises of mythical private jobs and funding.”
Frustrations remain even after this week’s acceptance. With the financial headwinds facing the city unlikely to disappear soon, the tug-of-war between the administration and the council is set to continue.
Councilor Miniard Culpepper continued to criticize Wu’s budget proposal on Wednesday. He credited activists, including the protesters who were arrested, for helping push the city in a different direction.
“This budget restores cuts. maybe not at the level I would have liked to see them. but it does restore cuts that never should have been cut in the first place. The programs and the grants that were placed on the chopping block were not luxuries or extras. they were investments serving some of Boston’s most vulnerable residents. ” Culpepper said.
Councilor Julia Mejia also praised activists for pressuring councilors and the administration throughout the process. She called the budget process “broken” and said councilors should have been more willing to reject Wu’s budget.
Mejia urged colleagues to apply more pressure going forward.
“That is the job of the Boston City Council. to stand up and fight for your constituents regardless of who it is that you are fighting against. ” she said. “I think we have lost that fight in this chamber and I am going to ask us that we find our ability to stand up and speak up. because that’s what we’ve been hired to do.”.
Boston City Council Michelle Wu amended budget fiscal year Boston Transportation Department rental vouchers youth jobs senior programming Office of Food Justice budget deadlock protesters layoffs