Mayor Wu rejects City Council's proposed public safety budget cuts

Mayor Michelle Wu rejected the Boston City Council’s amended budget Monday, responding with her own revised spending plan that shrinks the council’s proposed multimillion cuts to the city’s police and fire departments.

Wu’s rejection is the latest step in the city’s new budget process that gives the city’s legislature a larger hand in crafting a budget. The change, approved by voters last November, allows the council to make line-item amendments and override a mayor’s budget proposal with a two-thirds vote.

Last week, the council unanimously responded to Wu’s first draft budget with their own proposal which reallocated $14 million in public safety dollars from city police and fire to other priorities like youth jobs and housing. The reduction echoed police reform advocates' calls over the last two years to tamp down overtime spending, an idea Wu supported as an At-Large Councilor.

In a letter addressed to the chamber Monday, Wu pointed to the council’s $10 million reduction of police overtime and characterized it as unsound.

Read more: https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2022/06/14/wu-rejects-city-councils-proposed-public-safety-budget-cuts