Youth Justice and Power Union Statement on Mayor Wu’s Budget Veto
Mayor Wu’s proposed budget is filled with broken promises to reimagine safety by moving funds from the police and fully supporting youth jobs and affordable housing. Her pledge to transform racist systems – to “extract the poisons of white supremacy and racism from institutions in our city, including the Boston Police Department” – led to her becoming Mayor, but now she is not making that change.
Broken Promise #1: In 2020, Mayor Wu supported cutting the Boston Police Department by 10% from $414 million, which would mean reducing the budget to $373 million. In a 2021 youth mayoral candidate forum, she committed to decreasing the number of police officers to invest in community needs. Instead, she has rejected the Boston City Council’s $383 million police budget and increased it back to $394 million, including 56 new positions in BPD.
Broken Promise #2: Mayor Wu promised to fund 6000 summer jobs and 1500 school-year jobs (see page 35), including making school-year jobs last from September to June (see 1:13:27 in the video). But she cut the City Council’s proposed $19.4 million budget for youth jobs to less than $16 million, short of the funding needed to fulfill her promise.
Broken Promise #3: Mayor Wu committed to increase funding for low-income rental subsidies to $10 million, but she cut the City Council’s $10 million budget to $9.35 million.
Mayor Wu falsely claims that she cannot cut the police budget more. But she rejected $3.1 million of cuts to BPD equipment and contracts identified by the City Council. BPD hands out about 1 million hours of overtime a year. 469 officers make more than $50,000 each in overtime, costing Boston residents $34 million. It is possible to make real cuts to overtime in the budget, but Mayor Wu has decided not to. Of course the police will continue exorbitant overtime spending if the Mayor does not demand cuts.
The City Council collaborated with each other and, unlike Mayor Wu, listened to and worked with residents about many priorities. Now the City Council must stand strong to fully protect its divestment from the police department and its investment in youth jobs and affordable housing. Mayor Wu temporarily set back community priorities by overturning the City Council’s budget, cutting youth jobs and housing funding, and adding money back to the police. But she cannot overturn the community and City Council’s continuing teamwork to pass a final budget that funds real community safety and wellbeing.