Weekly Transcript Round-Up: FY25 Budget Veto Edition

Mayor Wu's Budget Veto draws strong pushback from Council leader & freshman Wu endorsee PLUS BPS' Budget approved by unusual majority

This week’s City Council action mostly happened outside the Council chamber:

• The first action was the unofficial announcement on Sunday and formal letter on Monday from Mayor Wu that she was vetoing most of the Council’s $15.3M in changes to her $4.6B budget.

• Then on Thursday, there was strong pushback against the Mayor’s vetoes from an unexpected place - freshmen District 6 Councilor Ben Weber - in the Boston Globe. Councilor Weber defeated scandal-plagued incumbent Kendra Lara in 2023 with an endorsement from Mayor Wu.

• Later in the day on Thursday, the Boston Globe published more pushback from the Council against Mayor Wu’s vetoes, this time from Ways & Means Chair Brian Worrell who wrote about why he thought his colleagues should override those vetoes. Councilor Worrell’s piece included a list of Councilors who were standing with him, and it was missing some of the yes vote’s on last week’s Council budget.

Not all of the action happened outside the Council chamber however - at this week’s regular Council meeting:

• The Mayor’s vetoes were sent to committee, and you can watch this video from BPI Executive Director Greg Maynard explaining why that had to happen on procedural grounds.

• Boston Public Schools’ FY25 Operating Budget passed by an unusual Council majority.

COUNCIL PASSES BPS FY25 BUDGET WITH UNUSUAL MAJORITY

BPS’ FY25 Opearating Budget passed 10-3, a comfortable majority, but as Councilor Worrell made clear in his recommendation to approve the budget that BPS pledged to make significant changes in order to secure this vote (he is Speaker 14 and his remarks start at the 2:58:31 mark in the transcript), including:

• “Properly staffing the risk and compliance office at BPS.”

• “A robust set of external audits from looking at the achievement of black and brown students to the central office to transportation.”

• “Having district counselors more involved to ensure the priorities of the council council are heard at the school level.”

• “BPS is also committed to providing us with a budget book for next budget cycle.”

• “The council's involvement in Boston Public Schools [will start] earlier next fiscal year with a working session as soon as October.”

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BPI highlighted Councilor Worrell’s work on expanding the Council’s role in the BPS budget process earlier this year:

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As Councilors followed with their own speeches, it was clear that many of the votes to approve were being made despite many criticisms and misgivings about the district’s current state and future plans.

The vote that stood out was Councilor At-Large Erin Murphy - she is Speaker 18 and her remarks on the BPS budget start at the 3:21:24 mark in the transcript - who is now the only Councilor to vote no on all three of the big budget actions this month: the Council’s FY25 budget; Mayor Wu’s CRE Tax Hike; and BPS’ FY25 Operating Budget.

COUNCIL SENDS MAYOR’S VETOES TO COMMITTEE, STARTS PUSH FOR VETO OVERRIDE AT JUNE 26 MEETING

This week the focus has mostly been on Boston’s FY25 budget and the now open fight between Mayor Michelle Wu and the Council’s leadership - Council President & At-Large Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune and Council Vice-President, Ways & Means Chair, & District 4 Councilor Brian Worrell - over the Mayor’s decision to veto most of the Council’s budget changes. That fight has happened almost entirely outside of formal Council meetings, with the Mayor’s vetoes sent to committee in the opening minutes of the Council’s work at Wednesday’s regular meeting - she is Speaker 0 and her remarks start at the 44:45 mark in the transcript:

The reason the Council didn't take action on Wednesday is because according to the City Charter’s rules, they could not. The Council is not allowed to vote on whether to override a Mayoral veto until seven days after it occurs, and since Mayor Wu vetoed the Council's budget on Monday, June 10th, the meeting on Wednesday, June 12th was too soon.

The timing of the veto and the city’s rules combine to create a high-stakes City Council meeting on June 26, which is the only City Council meeting between now and the end-of-month deadline to pass a budget. Next Wednesday falls on Juneteenth, so that means the Council’s leadership and Mayor Wu’s team have two full weeks to make their case to City Councilors about how they should vote on the budget.

In order for the Mayor to sustain her veto she needs five Councilors to vote against the override. As you can see in the graphic above, she is starting with only three no’s, so she needs them to stick with their vote and then convince at least two of the Councilors who approved the budget she vetoed to flip their vote.

The competition for those votes is appears to have started before Wednesday’s meeting. Here is what Council President Louijeune told the Boston Globe on Monday:

“The power to amend the budget is a power that the mayor herself voted on back in late 2020, and the residents of Boston agreed in 2021 that the City Council should share budgetary authority with the mayor,” Louijeune told the Globe Monday afternoon. “What we are seeing is my colleagues and I, led by councilor Worrell, who has done a great job as chair of ways and means, simply trying to execute on a mandate given to us by the people of the city of Boston.”

On Wednesday, Councilor Louijeune then sent the veto to the Ways & Means Committee, where Chair Brian Worrell, who is also the Council’s Vice President, will have the opportunity to hold hearings, working sessions, and get public testimony on the veto.

On Thursday, two City Councilors, including Chair Worrell, published pieces in the Boston Globe, and both were arguing for overriding the Mayor’s vetoes:

• At 3 AM on Thursday morning, the Boston Globe published an opinon piece by District 6 City Council Ben Weber titled ‘City Council’s police budget change was vetoed. It would have increased promotions of people of color.’ The piece argues for a budget cut that the Council made, and that Mayor Wu vetoed, which would have delayed a promotional exam and “level the playing field for all of our public safety officers.”

• At 3 PM on Thursday afternoon, the Boston Globe published another opinion piece from a Boston City Councilor, this time from Ways & Means Chair Brian Worrell, which was titled ‘Boston City Council budget is fair; members should override Wu’s veto.’ The piece lays out his case for the statement made in the headline.

The final line in Chair Worrell’s piece in the Globe reads:

Although the mayor accepted only $1 million of the council budget package this week, I’m standing with Councilors Liz Breadon, Gabriela Coletta Zapata, Tania Fernandes Anderson, Julia Mejia, Benjamin Weber, and Council President Ruthzee Louijeune in calling for our colleagues to override the mayor’s veto and secure funding for these important priorities.

This list of names is seven of the ten Councilors who voted for the Council’s version of the FY25 Budget. Left out of Chairr Worrell’s list are three Councilors who voted for the budget, but were elected in 2023 with Mayor Wu’s endorsement and worked for Mayor Wu immediately prior to becoming City Councilors:

• District 8 City Councilor Sharon Durkan was Mayor Wu’s campaign fundraising consultant and the fundraiser for Mayor Wu’s inaugural committee before running for City Council;

• At-Large City Councilor Henry Santana was the Wu administration’s inaugural Executive Director of the Office of Civic Organizing before running for City Council; and

• District 5 City Councilor Enrique Pepen was the Wu administration’s first Executive Director of the Office of Neighborhood Services before running for City Council.

These three Councilors are going to be the focus of both Council leadership and Mayor Wu’s team between now and June 26. Mayor Wu needs two of them to flip in order to sustain her veto, while Council leadership works to prevent that.

Boston Policy Institute will continue monitoring and explaining as Boston's 2024 budget process moves toward its end of month finish - for more make sure to follow us on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and LinkedIn.