Prepare for Week 7 of Boston’s FY25 Budget Season
Two un-televised, un-recorded Amendment Working Sessions on Monday & Tuesday; Also on Tuesday a working session on Mayor Wu's CRE tax hike; and a Veterans hearing on Thursday
This is the seventh week of Boston’s FY25 budget season and there are no more budget hearings before the City Council. That means more regular hearings, but this week both non-budget meetings - one on the Mayor’s CRE tax hike and the other on veterans services - have explicit budget implications. That makes the fact that this week the Council’s budget work is happening at meetings that are off-camera and un-recorded more interesting.
What are these un-recorded meetings? The Council calls them ‘Amendment Working Sessions’ and last week the third and fourth sessions were held. Like working sessions for ordinances, these meetings are public but not televised or recorded, and Councilors discuss any changes - amendments - that they want to make to the budget. For example, the threat to not pass Boston Public Schools’ FY25 budget, which was discussed at BPS Long-Term Facilities Plan Hearing and mentioned in Councilor Worrell’s budget update letter was made at one of these meetings earlier this year. This week there are two Amendment Working Sessions:
Monday, June 3, 10 AM in the Curley Room - check out the public notice for more.
Tuesday, June 4, 11 AM in the Piemonte Room - check out the public notice for more.
Want to learn more about the City Council’s budget process? BPI released the “2024 Boston City Council Transition Guide” back in January to explain the formal and informal rules that govern and guide City Council business - check it out:
In addition to those two meetings to formally work on the budget, there are two additional Council meetings with budget implications:
On Tuesday, June 4, 2 PM in the Piemonte Room the Government Operations Committee is holding a working session to discuss any changes Councilors want to make to the home rule petition proposed by Mayor Wu that would allow her administration hike taxes on commercial properties above the state-mandated limit. This meeting is likely to be extremely interesting, with a big challenge facing the Council the Boston Business Journal summed up last week: “Boston city councilors made one thing clear in a hearing Thursday on Mayor Michelle Wu’s property-tax plan: They want to find a way to limit residential-tax hikes that minimizes the added tax burden on businesses.” BPI previewed the second hearing with a video explainer and summarized last week’s hearing in the May 31 edition of Weekly Transcript Round-Up. This is the first in-person meeting on this issue because both hearings held on this home rule petition were held on Zoom.
On Friday, June 7, 10 AM in the Iannella Chamber the Veterans, Military Families, and Military Affairs Committee is holding a hearing “to discuss the goals and priorities of the City of Boston's Office of Veterans Services, and to discuss services for women veterans.” This Committee is chaired by District 2 City Councilor Ed Flynn, who is a Navy veteran and has made veteran services a major part of his Council work. This hearing is likely timed for budget season since Councilor Flynn has pointed to last year’s attempt by a narrow majority of the Council to cut almost $1M from Veterans several times already this year.
Is there something you are watching for in the budget process either this week or in the coming weeks? Email BPI at info@bostonpolicyinstitute.org to let us know!
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