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City councilors push for power in budgeting

Morgan C. Mullings
Staff reporter covering state and local politics. Report for America Corps Member. VIEW BIO
City councilors push for power in budgeting
At-large Councilor Michael Flaherty was one of three no votes on the council’s budget amendment.

The City Council has moved a step forward in an effort to establish a more equitable budget process that allows citizens to participate. District 1 City Councilor Lydia Edwards introduced an amendment in July to give the council power to reject the mayor’s amendments to the yearly budget and introduce their own, before a hard deadline. It will also give a percentage of the city budget to citizens to vote on. The council approved the amendment during its Dec. 9 meeting.

The ordinance reads, “The mayor and city council of the City of Boston shall hold equal budgetary authority,” meaning they each can modify parts of an existing budget and designate a portion of the budget for participatory budgeting. The council cannot “originate an appropriation order,” or originate budget amendments. That power will be reserved for the mayor.

Annually, the mayor will designate money to a Fund for Participatory Budgeting that will be no less than 0.5% of the proposed budget and will increase later to 1%. The amendment also calls for an independent Office of Participatory Budgeting to oversee “an equitable and binding decision-making process open to all Boston residents.”

This amendment creates a strict timeline for passing a budget, to prevent an emergency budget situation and prevent too much back-and-forth between the mayor and the council.

Previously, the council could only vote “yes” or “no” on the completed budget. If the measure passes, the council must “take definite action on the annual budget, by adopting, amending or rejecting it, provided that the amended version shall not be for a higher total budget than originally proposed,” the amendment reads.

The council vote to pass this charter amendment will not immediately change the charter. If approved by the Massachusetts attorney general, it will appear on the next local election ballot for voters to choose.

Councilors Michael Flaherty, Frank Baker and Ed Flynn voted no, with Baker asking that they postpone the vote.

“Everybody talks about balance and transparency, and I don’t think that this is being transparent,” Baker said. “[The Boston Finance Commission], they deal with the budget every single year, they know it inside out. [They’re] not even asked to be on a panel.”

Edwards said she didn’t feel the need to invite them, because the question at hand is whether or not the councilors think the people should vote on it. Edwards reminded the council that their decision is about giving voters the choice, rather than about showing support for the actual amendment.

“Those who are opposed to this, then they will be opposed to this. That’s okay,” she said.

The other 10 councilors voted yes, the exact number needed to propose a change to the city charter.

Matthew Cahill, executive director of the Boston Finance Commission, confirmed that his office had not been directly contacted about the charter amendment at first.

However, Councilor Baker reached out to the watchdog agency shortly before the Dec. 9 vote, and Cahill looked into the new budgeting process and its possible effects.

“Any way you can increase participation is fantastic,” Cahill said, but added that there are problems to avoid, which he found in three studies on participatory budgeting. A City University of New York study he mentioned found that including citizens in the process doesn’t always lead to an equitable distribution of funds, as there are barriers to participation for certain groups like immigrants, non-English speakers and those who lack internet access.

The charter amendment has changed significantly since it was introduced. The original version allowed the council to introduce its own budget along with the mayor’s and to line-item veto any part of the mayor’s budget.

The amendment now moves on to the attorney general, who will report if the amendment is constitutional or unconstitutional. The soonest it would take effect is fiscal year 2024.