There are 5 budget hearings this week:
Monday, May 18, at 10 AM, Iannella Chamber - Office of Police Accountability & Transparency - read the public notice
Monday, May 18, at 2 PM, Iannella Chamber - Boston Centers for Youth and Families & Office of Early Childhood - read the public notice
Tuesday, May 19, at 2 PM, Iannella Chamber - Boston Public Library - read the public notice
Thursday, May 19, at 10 AM and 2 PM, Ianella Chamber - Boston Public Health Commission- read the 10 AM public notice & the 2 PM public notice
Here is a little context for this week’s hearings about OPAT, BPL, and BPHC.
OPAT is now 5 years old, and has been far less effective and active than the state-level agency - the POST Commission - created for the same purpose. Some of that ineffectiveness is not the agency’s fault: based on public reporting, the Wu administration did not put cooperation requirements in any of the contracts it has settled with police unions over the last 5 years or order Commissioner Cox to cooperate with the agency. There has been a recent bright spot: earlier this year the agency issued its first subpoenas, a power it has held since being created in 2021 and that activists and the Boston Globe Editorial Board have long called on it to use. Will that burst of energy be enough get OPAT back on track?
Boston Public Library appears to be facing serious challenges from 2 places. The first is the fierce, mostly behind-the-scenes fight with its union that has occasionally broken into the public. The second challenge is its enormous capital needs, with branch libraries that need to be renovated or built new, as seen in South Boston and the South End, and a $300M+ price tag to renovate the historic McKim Building, large sections of which are closed due to decay. BPL - and BCYF and BPHC, the other 2 departments with capital budgets having hearings this week - have all seen major capital projects delayed or cancelled because City Hall’s limited capital spending capacity has been eaten up by White Stadium, which has grown from a $30M project in 2023 to $90M in 2024 to at least $135M in 2026.
The major budget change for BPHC is that the Office of Community Safety, which lists as its manager Isaac Yablo - who serves as Mayor Wu’s Senior Advisor for Community Safety - is being put under their auspices. There is a strange note here: looking at Yablo’s LinkedIn, it appears that move might have already happened without Council approval.
BPHC’s hearing is also a good reminder that the Coordinated Response Team - the team that runs the City Hall response to Mass & Cass - is not appearing before the Council for a budget hearing for at least the 3rd straight year. CRT is technically under Human Services, but is effectively run out of BPHC.
In this FY27 budget hearing preview, BPI will include:
Which departments and offices are appearing at each hearing;
Where to find each hearing’s focus in the 1,102 page FY27 Budget Book;
The FY27 vs FY26 numbers from the FY27 Budget Book for that hearing;
Highlight which spending priorities laid out in the Mayor’s budget letter are for that hearing’s topic; and
What BPI is watching for in each hearing.
OFFICE OF POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY (OPAT), MONDAY, 10 AM
There is just one department at this hearing: OPAT.
WHERE DO I FIND IT IN THE FY27 BUDGET BOOK?
OPAT just has an Operating Budget, with no External Funds Budget or Capital Budget.
Find the Operating Budget on p. 280-286.
FY27 vs FY26 BY THE NUMBERS
OPAT’s Operating Budget: $1,432,338 in FY27 vs $1,472,015 in FY26, a ($39,677) of 2.7% decrease, but that cut is happening in just There are 3 divisions in OPAT:
Civilian Review Board - $46,929 in FY27 and FY26, no change
Internal Affairs Oversight Panel $26,071 in FY27 and FY26, no change
OPAT Executive Administration - $1,359,338 in FY27 vs $1,399,015 in FY26, a ($39,677) a 2.8% decrease.
FROM THE MAYOR’S LETTER
No mention in the letter.
WHAT BPI IS WATCHING FOR
There are very few budget-related questions for OPAT: the agency’s issues are all questions of policy priorities and mayoral interest. BPI has 5 questions:
Why hasn’t cooperating with OPAT been part of the changes City Hall labor relations staff got in the collective bargaining agreements with Boston Police Department unions?
Why hasn’t Mayor Wu ordered Commissioner Cox to enforce OPAT’s disciplinary decisions?
What steps has OPAT taken since 6 BPD employees refused to comply with the agency’s subpoenas in February?
Has OPAT been able to hire a new chief of staff since its last one was fired in 2025?
Evandro Carvalho, the current executive director of OPAT was the last executive director of the Human Rights Commission, a body which the Wu administration has been winding down for years, and which had its budget zeroed out in the FY27 budget. Can he talk about lessons learned from that experience that he is applying to OPAT?
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BOSTON CENTERS FOR YOUTH & FAMILIES AND OFFICE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD, MONDAY, 2 PM
This hearing has 2 offices: Boston Centers for Youth and Families, which has a $30M budget, and the Office of Early Childhood with an <$1M budget.
WHERE DO I FIND IT IN THE FY27 BUDGET BOOK?
The BCYF Operating Budget is on p. 626-637
The BCYF Capital Budget is on p. 1004-1013
FY27 vs FY26 BY THE NUMBERS
The BCYF Operating Budget: $30,564,971 in FY27 vs $30,556,055 in FY26, a $8,916 or 0.0% increase. There are 4 divisions in BCYF:
Administration & Policy - $17,186,480 in FY27 vs $17,431,694 in FY26, a ($245,214) or 1.4% decrease
Child Car & Out-of-School - $1,632,081 in FY27 vs $1,551,933 in FY26, a $80,148 or 5.2% increase
Sports & Fitness - $8,114,122 in FY27 vs $8,359,054 in FY26, a ($244,932) or 2.9% decrease
Youth & Family Services - $3,632,288 in FY27 vs $3,213,374 in FY26, a $418,914 or 13.0% increase
The BCYF Capital Budget: $229,700,000 in FY27-31 vs $216,075,000 in FY26-30, a $13,625,000 or 6.3% increase. Looking at capital spending in FY26 has been an interesting data point:
“Budgeted ‘26” in last year’s budget book was $56,221,400 vs $25,825,000 in “Estimated ‘26”, meaning BCYF only spent 46% of its planned budget.
FROM THE MAYOR’S LETTER
No mention in the letter.
WHAT BPI IS WATCHING FOR
BPI has 3 questions for BCYF:
Administration & Policy and Sports & Fitness are both seeing their overall budgets cut, but spending on “personnel services” is increasing in both budgets: about $400k in A&P and $100k in S&F. What is driving that increase? Based on the current employment contracts with non-union-ized employees and CBAs for unionized employees, how much is that line expected to rise in FY28?
Is there more room to cut “non-personnel services” after this fiscal year? Put another way: if you needed to cut more spending in this budget, would you cut “non-personnel” more, or cut “personnel”?
BCYF’s capital budget last year called for spending $56M in FY26, but this year showed less than 50% of that was spent: a little under $26M. With that in mind, how much of the $60M in spending in FY27 called for in this budget do you expect to see actually spent?
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BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY (BPL), TUESDAY, 2 PM
There is just one department at this hearing: BPL.
WHERE DO I FIND IT IN THE FY27 BUDGET BOOK?
Boston Public Library’s Operating Budget is on p. 643-660.
Boston Public Library’s Capital Budget is on p. 1014-1021.
FY27 vs FY26 BY THE NUMBERS
Boston Public Library’s Operating Budget - $50,724,322 in FY27 vs $50,770,930 in FY26, a ($46,608) or 0.1% decrease.
That tiny decrease is misleading because there is a lot of money moving around inside this budget:
Community & Neighborhood Services - $15,530,263 in FY27 vs $15,148,595 in FY26, a $381,668 or 2.5% increase
Library Administration - $1,741,440 in FY27 vs $2,928,166 in FY26, a ($1,186,726) or 40.5% decrease
Library Operations - $17,011,177 in FY27 vs $16,342,389 in FY26, a $668,788 or 4.1% increase
Library Services - $14,097,891 in FY27 vs $14,062,880 in FY26, a $35,011 or 0.2% increase
Research & Special Collections - $2,343,551 in FY27 vs $2,288,900 in FY26, a $54,651 or 2.4% increase
Boston Public Library’s Capital Budget - 249,535,000 in FY27-31 vs 283,180,000 in FY26-30, a ($33,645,000) or 11.9% decrease. Looking at capital spending in FY26 has been an interesting data point:
“Budgeted ‘26” in last year’s budget book was $40,365,879 vs $23,400,000 in “Estimated ‘26”, meaning BPL only spent 58% of its planned budget.
FROM THE MAYOR’S LETTER
Boston Public Library is mentioned 2 times in the Mayor’s letter, both in the “Human Services” subheader of the “The FY27 recommended budget includes the following key priorities” section.
It is the first paragraph of the subheader:
The Human Services budget maintains evening and weekend hours and programming at libraries and BCYF centers, as well as classes for adult English-language available at no cost to residents through the Boston Public Library.
Then it is 2nd line in the 4th paragraph of that subheader:
In Chinatown, we broke ground on a project that will bring 110 affordable homes and a new permanent branch of the Boston Public Library to the neighborhood, turning a City-owned parking lot into a community anchor.
WHAT BPI IS WATCHING FOR
BPI has 4 questions for BPL:
BPS’ Library Administration is seeing a huge budget cut, with 40% of its “Personnel Services” budget - more than $1M - being cut. How is this budget cut being accomplished? Can you explain what kind of categories of spending are being cut since the number of FTE positions is not going down?
There is $32M budgeted for the “Chinatown Branch Library” project (p. 1016), but nearly all of that money - $29.3M - is in FY28-31. Can BPL talk through how that capital budget intersects with the recently started construction on the apartment building/BPL branch in Chinatown?
On April 30, 2025, the Boston Public Library Professional Staff Association filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge against Boston which charged that the city had engaged in a campaign of “intimidation, interrogation, disparagement and threats of discipline” at the union’s president because she refused to sign “a statement in derogation of member rights” she believed was false. What is the current status of that Unfair Labor Practice Charge? How would you characterize the current relationship between management and the Boston Public Library Professional Staff Association?
The Boston Globe reported about the sorry state of the McKim Building in September 2025, which the 2021 master plan found had an unusable 3rd floor and estimated the cost of renovating at $325M. The budget for the “McKim Master Plan” (p. 1016) in this year’s capital budget is just $50M, and none of that was spent in FY26 or in FY27. BPL President David Leonard asked the question in the Globe article “What is the city really up for?” Can he answer that question at today’s hearing?
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BOSTON PUBLIC HEALTH COMMISSION, THURSDAY, 10 AM & 2 PM
The BPHC budget is being examined at both of Thursday’s budget hearings. On Thursday at 10 AM the focus will be:
BPHC Overview
EMS
Recovery Services
Homeless Services
On Thursday at 2 PM the focus will be:
WHERE DO I FIND IT IN THE FY27 BUDGET BOOK?
BPHC’s Operating Budget is on p. 676-703.
BPHC’s Capital Budget is on p. 1041-1045.
FY27 vs FY26 BY THE NUMBERS
BPHC’s Operating Budget: $148,299,838 in FY27 vs $145,926,750 in FY26, a $2,373,088 or 1.6% increase. Here is how that breaks out:
PHC Administration - $23,778,202 in FY27 vs $23,922,687 in FY26, a ($144,485) or 0.6% decrease
Public Health Property - $6,154,066 in FY27 vs $6,102,004 in FY26, a $52,062 or 0.9% increase
Public Health Services - $118,367,570 in FY27 vs $115,902,059 in FY26, a $2,465,511 or 2.1% increase
BPHC’s Capital Budget: $92,015,000 in FY27-31 vs $87,700,000 in FY26-30, a $4,315,000 or 4.9% increase. Looking at capital spending in FY26 has been an interesting data point:
“Budgeted ‘26” in last year’s budget book was $22,457,977 vs $13,100,000 in “Estimated ‘26”, meaning BPHC only spent 58% of its planned budget.
FROM THE MAYOR’S LETTER
BPHC is mentioned once in the Mayor’s letter, under the “Public Health and Safety” subheader of the “The FY27 recommended budget includes the following key priorities” section.
The Community Safety team will fully move from the Office of Human Services to the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) in FY27, reflecting the administration’s public health-centered approach to addressing community violence.
WHAT BPI IS WATCHING FOR
BPI has 4 questions for BPHC:
Why is the request to move the Office of Community Safety to BPHC only being made now for the FY27 budget, when Isaac Yablo appears to have made the move to BPHC last June, which was during FY25?
The Coordinated Response Team works closely with the BPHC team: how much of the BPHC budget is spent on line items related to CRT’s work? How many BPHC staff worked with CRT?
Does BPHC track state spending in Boston from human services contracts that do not flow through the BPHC or other City agencies? For example, could BPHC tell the Council how much the state spends on Mass & Cass focused services that go directly to other providers, like Pine Street Inn or Boston Healthcare for the Homeless?
In February South End community leaders and elected officials, along with the CRT, announced a new plan and approach to Mass & Cass. In April, Mayor Wu and State House leaders announced $4M in funding in the state’s budget to support that program. Did that plan cause BPHC to change anything in their FY27 budget? Can BPHC walk through those changes?
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