FY26 BUDGET SEASON: Preview of Week 2 Hearings
With today’s holiday, there is no regular Council meeting this week, and the Council itself appears to be taking the week off, with just two hearings scheduled for this week:
Tuesday at 6 PM is the only Ways & Means Budget Season hearing, a virtual hearing to collect public testimony;
Friday at 10 AM the Public Safety Committee is holding a hearing on all the the Boston Fire Department’s (BFD) grants.
This light week is a chance to look at the hearings occuring over the rest of the FY26 Budget Season:
There are a two important offices missingfrom these hearings that BPI is watching to see if they are added: the Office of Historic Preservation and the Boston Housing Authority.
For the 2nd year in a row the Office of Historic Preservation - which oversees the Landmarks Commission & the City’s 10 historic districts - has not had a budget hearing. This is particularly concerning because the Landmarks Commission just got a new Executive Director in March, after being without a permanent leader since last April when a letter from Commissioners complained about Mayor Wu’s staff interfering with their work & the Walsh-era Executive Director was fired.*
After appearing alongside the Mayor’s Office of Housing at last year’s budget hearings, this year the Boston Housing Authority is absent from the budget hearing schedule. BHA has been the subject of Council attention for much of the last year, first as a result of broken elevators at a number of BHA developments, then because of an extremely critical federal audit that came out in February, and which found extensive problems including mold, cockroaches, and broken plumbing. BHA was name-checked by the Mayor in her budget letter for a $124M in capital spending at 3 BHA developments where public-private construction projects are taking place.
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*CORRECTION: Landmarks Commission got a new Executive Director in March 2025.
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