Boston City Council Hears Public Demands to Reshape Mayor Wu's FY26 Budget

BOSTON — May 28, 2025 — Boston residents packed a Ways and Means hearing to demand changes to Mayor Michelle Wu's proposed $4.8 billion FY26 budget. Committee Chair Brian Worrell, the District 4 city councilor, convened the May 28 session on docket numbers 0822 through 0830, with Councilors Edward M. Flynn, Gabriela Coletta Zapata, Benjamin J. Weber, Sharon Durkan, Liz Breadon, Enrique J. Pepén, and Henry Santana in attendance. Boston Public Health Commission workers represented by SEIU 1199 and SEIU 888 testified they have worked without a contract since 2020, with registered nurses starting at $30 an hour and community health workers at $16 an hour — below the city's own $20–$22 living-wage floor in outside contracts. ESOL advocates urged the council to amend the budget to raise Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement ESOL grants from $225,000 to $500,000, citing a citywide waitlist of more than 580 people at one program alone and a projected 20 percent cut in state adult-education funding from federal threats. Youth organizers with the Youth Justice and Power Union, who marched to City Hall earlier that day, called for $4 million for a Boston People's Response mental health pilot, $11.5 million in rental subsidies, and higher-wage year-round youth jobs, pointing to 15,000 youth job applicants last year against only 10,500 funded slots.