City

Mayor Wu shares proposed $4.64 billion budget

A large majority of the proposed FY2025 budget focuses on education and public safety.

April 10, 2024 • 
Brianna Williams
An image of the skyline from the Boston Common. In the foreground is the park with multiple full, green trees and bright green grass. In the background are several tall buildings and a blue sky filled with clouds.

The FY25 budget reflects an 8% increase over the former fiscal year’s budget.

Photo by @cmarino78

On Wednesday, April 10, Mayor Wu presented her proposed $4.64 billion FY2025 budget to City Council during the City of Boston Budget Breakfast.

We’ve got a brief breakdown of the spending plans, but you can also view the full proposed budget.

Budget by category

Public education: ~39%
Public safety: ~17%
Fixed costs: ~15%
City departments: ~14%
Streets & public transportation: ~6%
Health insurance: ~5%
Public health: ~3%

By the numbers

What does funding for these categories look like in real life? If approved, the budget will include funding towards projects like these:

  • $40 million to build on dedicated funding for housing programs like homelessness prevention programming + housing vouchers
  • $1 million to support rental assistance and decarbonization efforts
  • $1.3 million for 12 new EMTs
  • $1 million to support low-threshold housing, substance use treatment, and mobile outreach teams
  • $20 million to support school-based investments in inclusive education, like additional support for children with special needs + those learning English
  • $500,000 to support community connection services for older adults
  • $200,000 to support emergency preparedness for climate change, in particular an update to the climate action plan
  • $735,000 to support additional staff + maintenance of Franklin Park, including a new park administrator and full maintenance crew
  • $3 million to support streamlining the city’s licensing and permitting process

An 8% increase

The proposed budget reflects an 8% increase over FY2024’s operational budget.

A chunk of that increase comes from the creation of a new official city planning department and reflects funding that will be transferred from the Boston Planning & Development Agency to fund the new department.

25% of that increase is dedicated to education, including Boston Public Schools and Charter School Tuition Assessment + 28% is going toward the collective bargaining reserve.

The increase will also go towards inflationary growth of departmental expenses, strategic investments, and fixed costs of pensions and debt service.