BOSTON — Imagine if you skipped 70 percent of the meetings where your company decides budgets, spending, salaries, and priorities — and instead of getting fired, you asked for another term.
Welcome to Henry Santana’s Boston.
Attendance tallies reviewed by Mass Daily News show the at-large City Councilor missed nearly 70 percent of Boston’s budget oversight hearings during his first term — the sessions where taxpayer dollars are examined, departments are questioned, and the public gets its only real window into how billions are allocated.
He didn’t show up for the accountability. But he did show up to vote to raise your taxes.
Boston City Hall, where budget decisions are made — and where Councilor Henry Santana missed most oversight hearings.
Residential property tax bills climbed across Boston in 2024 and 2025. Santana backed the city’s tax classification and fiscal course, voting to increase what residents pay while missing the meetings where that spending should have been scrutinized.
In any normal workplace, this gets you escorted out by HR before lunch.
In Boston City Hall, it gets you a re-election slogan.
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Santana has not responded to requests for comment.
He also did not simply earn his way onto the ballot. Reports show his initial campaign received help from Mayor Michelle Wu’s political team to gather signatures and get him qualified when he risked falling short, according to reporting from WBUR and the Boston Globe.
That’s not grassroots. That’s a political airlift — just enough lift to float him past the preliminary, but nowhere near a mandate.
Budget oversight hearings are not ribbon cuttings or happy press photos. They are where councilors press departments, challenge requests, and defend the public’s wallet. It’s the least glamorous part of the job — and it’s the only part that actually protects taxpayers.
Santana skipped it and still voted to take more from residents.
Boston City Councilor Henry Santana, who missed most of the city's budget oversight hearings during his first term.
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It's also worth noting that Santana never voted in a Boston election before deciding he should hold office in one. His first ballot here was for himself — a remarkable origin story in a city where regular residents show up for years before asking for the job of representing everyone else.
Meanwhile, other at-large councilors actually showed up. Erin Murphy — who built her support the hard way, from classrooms to community rooms, not campaign war rooms — has been a consistent presence in hearings, pressing departments and staying visible when budgets are debated. Residents know she’s in the room when decisions get made, not phoning it in from somewhere else.
And former Councilor Frank Baker, now running citywide, built his reputation the old Boston way — by showing up, asking tough questions, and not relying on a mayor’s political operation to get him across the line. Whatever one thinks of Baker’s views, he put in the work. No machine lift. Just a chair, a mic, and a record.
Frank Baker, seeking a return to the Boston City Council as an at-large candidate. He and Councilor Erin Murphy are among the contenders heading into Election Day.
Most Bostonians don’t get to skip their responsibilities and then demand a raise. They don’t get to do 30 percent of the work and still claim authority over the people footing the bill.
Henry Santana did. And tomorrow, he’s asking for another term to keep doing it.
Voters aren’t deciding between personalities. They're deciding whether showing up still matters in this city — or whether absentee politics and machine lifts now count as public service.
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