Weekly Transcript Round-up for 05/01/26
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Weekly Transcript Round-up for 05/01/26BPI got answers to just 10 of 24 budget preview questions; Lawsuit over Boston's assessing practices heard; Council schedules finance budget hearing; 5 resolutions split Council at 4/29 mtg
This week saw a lot of action:
Before going through all 24 questions and answers, there was important movement on 2 issues BPI has been following closely: a budget hearing on Boston’s revenue, and the on-going lawsuit over Boston’s assessing practices. First, the Council appears to be taking a recommendation offered by BPI’s Executive Director Gregory Maynard: at a budget hearing 2 weeks ago, Maynard called for either a stand alone revenue hearing or a healing with the finance cabinet departments. On Tuesday the Council added that budget hearing: it will be held on May 26 and feature Treasury, Auditing, and Assessing - read the public notice. Second, the lawsuit over alleged City Hall retaliation against commercial property owners who filed an abatement went before a judge on Wednesday. The judge appeared sympathetic to the plaintiffs - read more in the Boston Herald:
The Herald also reported that the City’s attorney also appeared to admit that the practice at issue was likely out-of-bounds, an admission that the plaintiff attorney called “astonishing.” This is not the first time this happened: the now-Corporation Counsel Mike Firestone appeared to admit the same thing in an email exchange that occurred in 2025 and was reported by the Herald in early 2026. This week’s regular Council meeting saw a number of resolutions offered and voted on, including these 5:
Now, here are the 24 questions that BPI sent out in FY27 BUDGET SEASON previews this week:
1. Last year DOIT was featured in the Mayor’s letter: how did efforts to “build out a new 311 constituent relationship management technology and permitting and licensing systems” go? This question was not asked or answered. 2. What is happening to the “Affordable Commercial Assistance Fund”? Rick Wilson, Director of Administration and Finance at the Mayor’s Office on Housing, answered this question at Monday afternoon’s hearing, telling the Council - he is Speaker 2 & starts at the 25:29 mark:
3. Can you describe what is being cut to achieve a $4.1M decrease in “56200 Total Special Appropriations” in the MoH’s Operating Budget? This question was not asked or answered. 4. What is the $49.4M cut to “Contracted Services” in MoH’s External Funds? Wilson also answered this question, in response to a question from Councilor Murphy - this exchange starts at the 31:58 mark:
6. Why is the FY27 line item for “CBGB” $15.7M, but the anticipated amount is $16.9M in the descriptions of the funds on p. 719? This question was not asked or answered. 7. Much has been written about cuts to the City of Boston Voucher Program: how much is budgeted for the program in FY27? This question is necessary because many individual programs like this are not broken out in the FY27 Budget Book. In the City’s opening presentation Wilson said - he starts at the 15:03 mark: “the City of Boston Voucher program, which we passed through to the Boston Housing Authority, is the largest line line item in our budget, funded at $11,850,000 for FY27.” Later in the hearing Wilson adds detail to this $11.8M figure while explaining the MOH’s $5M budget cut and said - he starts at the 25:39 mark: “The largest reduction was in the City of Boston Voucher Program: $2,300,000 . . . My understanding is that that will not reduce the number of City of Boston Vouchers that the BHA is able to support.” It appears that the Wu administration is attempting to reimpose proposed cuts from FY26 that the Council reversed. In the FY26 budget, the Wu administration proposed $12,350,000 for the “City of Boston Voucher Program + Faircloth ( thru BHA),” a $500k cut vs FY25. The Council instead added $1.6M to the program, part of its tiny package of <$8M worth of changes to Mayor Wu’s $4.6B budget. 8. Can you talk through the $74,689,797 or 58.8% decrease in the MOH’s FY27-31 Capital Budget vs the FY26-30 Capital Budget? This question was not asked or answered. 9. Where did the “no funding” for Jackson Mann decision that Millor announced on April 3 come from? There was just one question about the Jackson Mann at Tuesday morning’s budget hearing on the Office of Neighborhood Services. Council President Liz Breadon asked Community Engagement Cabinet Chief Brianna Millor this question, but did not get an answer - this exchange starts at the 32:56 mark:
Millor did not answer the question, saying instead:
That answer led to several minutes of back and forth between Millor and Breadon that sounded a lot like an exchange 2 weeks ago about Jackson Mann between Breadon and other City officials. 10. What group or official made the decision that Millor announced on April 3? Was it the Planning Advisory Council - which appears deeply involved in making capital spending decisions? Was it Ian Donnelly - the Deputy Budget Director & Director of Capital Planning - who spoke at length in the Capital Budget hearing on Tuesday, April 14? This question was not asked or answered. 11. How does the current level of spending on the BCYF Allston Community Center and the Allston Elementary School Design differ from what Millor announced on April 3? This question was not asked or answered. 12. Why is the Office for Civic Organizing seeing a 146% increase in spending on “Personnel Services” from $130k to $316k? Breadon asked this question immediately before her question about the Jackson Mann, and then returned to the issues after Jackson Mann. Civic Organizing Director Nathalia Benitez-Perez and Millor both claimed to not know what she was talking about - she says this at the 38:03 mark:
Here is the Office of Civic Organizing Operating Budget that Breadon is referring to, which shows an enormous increase in “personnel services” in FY27: 13. Why is ONS seeing spending on employees going up $211k, from $5.4M to $5.6M, but expects to see no increase in the number of FTEs? This question was not asked or answered. 14. Why is SPARK Boston listed on this budget hearing agenda, but isn’t in the FY27 Budget Book? Councilor Breadon also asked this question and City staff denied that it was true - this exchange starts at the 31:39 mark:
The issue with Millor’s answer is that it isn’t true. Go to the FY27 Budget Book and Ctrl-F the word “spark” - it does not appear in the budget.
15. Did anyone at Economic Opportunity & Inclusion (EOI) Cabinet send out a letter to past grant recipients detailing cuts to grant programs like the one Boston Arts Review reported was sent out by Arts & Culture Chief Joseph Zeal-Henry? This question was asked several times, and based on the changing answers, this seems to be another example of City officials leaning heavily on semantics in order to give unresponsive answers. Councilor Louijeune asked this question, but got a unresponsive answer from Office of Small Business Director Aliesha Porcena - the exchange starts at the 1:04:53 mark. Porcena gave a different answer to Councilor Murphy, telling her - this exchange starts at the 1:51:44 mark:
16. Can City officials describe what role - if any - City Hall played in getting Hasbro? Councilor Flynn asked a version of this question several times, and interim EOI Cabinet Chief Donald Wright gave this answer - this exchange starts at around the 52:15 mark:
17. Hasbro’s move to Boston was aided by the state committing $14M in tax incentives. Did the City of Boston offer any economic development incentives of its own like lowered property taxes for the building that Hasbro now occupies? This question was answered by an unexpected person: former EOI Cabinet Chief Segun Idowu. Idowu resigned amid scandal in January but he was back at City Hall on Thursday, sitting in the audience and giving a 3 minute statement as a member of the public. Here is was his answer - he is Speaker 11 & starts at the 1:33:11 mark:
18. Can City officials describe how City Hall’s business outreach works prior to the recently announced “You can’t beat Boston” initiative, and describe what office currently “serve as the central point of contact for businesses considering growing in Boston”? This question was not asked or answered. 19. Can the City provide data to back up the claims the Mayor made about the SPACE grant in her April 8 budget presentation? Has the City tracked how much vacant space was rented out, increases in foot traffic, increases in sales tax or other tax, or jobs created by SPACE grant recipients? This question was not asked or answered on Thursday morning, but another data question was asked by Councilor Weber about a vacant storefront tracker - this answer starts at about the 1:27:40 mark:
Another way to phrase this answer: 6 months after a request for data was made, the EOI Cabinet had been able to list storefront vacancies in just one square - read more about that hearing from the Boston Herald. It may be that this is not the right cabinet to address this question: the Planning Department has the BPDA’s research bureau and may be able to provide a better answer. 20. Why is the EOI’s international partnerships position moving to Intergovernmental Relations in the Mayor’s Office? Is the plan for Ricardo Patron to oversee that position, or is that position reporting to someone else in the Mayor’s office? This question was not asked or answered. 21. Why hasn’t the letter Boston Arts Review reported about earlier this week from Boston’s Chief of Arts and Culture Joseph Zeal-Henry to recipients of arts grants overseen by his office, which “indicates that MOAC-funded programs, the Opportunity Fund, and the Strand [Theatre] Grant have been removed from the FY 2027 budget and that the Boston Cultural Council Organizational Grant has been substantially reduced” been shared with the public? This questions was not asked or answered. 22. Is there more detail on what the “Selected Performance Goals” for Consumer Affairs & Licensing actually are? This question was not asked or answered. 23. Why was the decision made to give the Office of Historic Preservation responsibility to “lead an effort to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States in 1776 and the Boston-centric events that led up to this historic event” when Tourism seems better suited to that job? This question was not asked or answered. 24. FIFA recently released its hold on a large number of hotel room, which means fewer people are expected to come to Boston for the World Cup this summer. This raises a larger question does the City’s finance staff consult with Tourism officials - on hotel local option tax - or folks in the Licensing office - especially with all those new liquor licenses being distributed - on revenue forecast? This question was not asked or answered. Boston Policy Institute, Inc is working to improve the public conversation - help us by following BPI on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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Paul Creighton
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