Roughly 200 residents from more than 20 community groups marched on City Hall on Tuesday, demanding that the City Council reject Mayor Michelle Wu’s 4.9 billion spending plan, the tightest budget since she became mayor in 2021. The fiscal year 2027 budget includes cuts to multiple departments, including programs supporting affordable housing, veterans’ services, and youth jobs.

Led by the Better Budget Alliance (BBA), a grassroots coalition seeking to increase democratic control over the city’s finances, protestors opposed the cuts, decrying that the city, “Fund us or fail us.” They ranged in age and background, and in which program they were there to testify for, but maintained that the Council must reject and amend the budget to restore $16 million in funds cut.

“At a time when we need leadership to protect against the assault on multi-racial working class communities from the federal government, the Mayor’s proposed cuts instead abandon the most vulnerable residents struggling with unemployment, evictions and rising rents, food insecurity and attacks from ICE and overpolicing,” the BBA said in a letter to the council. “The budget cuts vital funding to our schools, youth, and most vulnerable populations, and it reverses years of progress where the City Council used its budget powers to invest in Boston communities.

Wu herself has described the budget as tough but designed to protect essential city services during a difficult economic climate. The Mayor posits that the City will lean on public-private partnerships to bridge gaps in services and that strategic financial management will prevent more disruptive cuts while keeping Boston on track to meet its debt obligations and unfunded pension liability by 2028.

Boston is not alone in facing stricter budgeting, with cities and towns across the state facing skyrocketing healthcare costs, expensive snow removal and police overtime, and state restrictions on how municipalities can raise state revenue.

Still, residents are experiencing higher taxes with fewer services as we enter the new fiscal year.

Davel Moore, 17, a senior youth organizer at the Center for Teen Empowerment’s Dorchester location, said the cuts demonstrate a contradiction in how the City understands public investment.

“Boston is perfectly willing to spend enormous amounts of money managing the downstream consequences of inequality, but becomes hesitant the moment the conversation shifts to reducing inequality at its source,” he said

Moore called youth employment one of the few policies that address economic mobility, public health, educational engagement, workforce development, and violence prevention by intervening before a crisis can occur.

“The city is continuously investing disproportionately in reactive systems… because those systems produce visible demonstrations of authority. They communicate control,” Moore said. “Youth jobs, mentorship, and social support produce something less theatrical: Stability.”

Henry Santana, 18, a senior at Boston Latin Academy, said that the mentorship and experience he gained from youth programs have enabled him to attend college on a full scholarship. “That opportunity didn’t happen by accident. It happened because Boston invested in young people like me,” he said.