Boston City Council Passes $2.86 Billion Budget

Boston City Hall Photo by Naquib Hossain on Flickr/Creative Commons

Perhaps it was swallowed up by other big news yesterday, but the Boston City Council passed a $2.86 billion budget for the next fiscal year on 12-1 vote during its regular Wednesday session.

The lone vote against the budget was Mattapan City Councilor Charles Yancey, who said that he could not vote for the budget due to cuts for school transportation among other budget items.

The $2.86 billion price tag amounts to a 4.5 percent increase in spending over the 2015 budget that, coincidentally, contained a budget increase of 4.6 percent over 2014.

Some of the highlights from the budget are:

– An additional 200 summer jobs for teens, bringing the total to 3,500

– A restored police cadets program

– $1 billion school budget for the first time

– Increase of $676,445 0f for the Boston Public Library system

– A $4 million, or 21.9 percent, increase in the snow removal budget

You can read an overview of the budget here.

A spokesperson from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s office said that the mayor will likely review and sign the budget early next week.

The new budget goes into effect July 1.