BOSTON — The Wu administration is expected to fully restore funding to Boston's Office of Veterans' Services after weeks of pressure from Boston City Councilors — led by Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn — backed by MDN's repeated coverage and sustained reader and social media outrage over a $724,000, 14% cut buried in Mayor Michelle Wu's $4.9 billion fiscal year 2027 budget, Murphy said in a Tuesday Instagram statement.
Mayor Michelle Wu with members of a Boston VFW post. Her FY27 budget cut the Office of Veterans' Services by 14%.
The reversal — if announced as expected — would mark a retreat from one of the most-criticized line items in Wu's budget, which MDN reported earlier this month also slashed funding for firefighter cancer screenings while raising property taxes on Boston homeowners by 13% this year.
Murphy, a Councilor At-Large and longtime fiscal hawk on the council, said she was "hearing encouraging news that the administration may soon announce a plan to fully restore funding for the Office of Veterans' Services." Reducing the budget by nearly $724,000 from "one of the City's smallest but most important departments," she said, was "unacceptable."
Murphy framed the cut as a betrayal of "veterans, military families, and surviving spouses" who "deserve a budget that reflects our commitment to them, especially at a time when so many service members are serving in harm's way to defend our freedoms."
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She also drew a line on how the restoration should be funded. Murphy said she "strongly opposed taking money from the Fire Department to fund Veterans' Services" — a reference to one of the funding-source options that surfaced during earlier budget negotiations — and added, "we should never pit veterans against firefighters, public safety, or any other essential service."
The Wu administration has not yet publicly confirmed the restoration. MDN has hammered the veterans cut for almost two weeks — starting with our May 16 report that Wu was holding firm on the $4.9 billion budget despite the 14% cut and refused to restore federal firefighter cancer-screening cash, followed the next day by Councilor Ed Flynn's call for Wu to give up her own $43,000 raise to plug the gap, and again Sunday after Wu's emotional Memorial Day Instagram tribute landed just weeks after she'd cut the funding.
Wu's rubber stamp
While Murphy and Councilor Ed Flynn led the public push to undo the veterans cut, Back Bay Councilor Sharon Durkan — a close Wu ally and reliable administration vote — moved in the opposite direction.
Boston City Councilors Ed Flynn (left) and Erin Murphy (right) — two of the loudest critics of the Wu administration's 14% cut to Veterans' Services.
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When the council attempted to reject Wu's $4.9 billion budget on May 22 as a way to force a redo, Durkan voted to keep the budget in place, veterans cut and all. The motion failed on a 6-6 split.
Boston City Councilor Sharon Durkan, a Wu ally who voted to keep the $4.9 billion budget — and the 14% veterans cut — in place.
Durkan's pitch to her colleagues, per the Boston Globe and Boston.com: "we can't pull money out of a hat." She argued the budget "cannot get bigger" — even as the city found room for $500 wellness vouchers for 'LGBTQ+ migrants'.
Tuesday's signals of a reversal came only after weeks of sustained public backlash — backlash Durkan helped block at the council level.
This is a developing story.
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