Walsh’s city budget up 4.4%

Most added costs coming from schools

Mayor Martin Walsh is counting on property taxes to hold up as he proposes a budget increase — if a reduced one — in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

Walsh’s administration has submitted a budget for the fiscal year starting in July. This first shot at the budget for Fiscal Year 2021 would constitute what Walsh called a “modest” 4.4% increase — $154 million — over last year’s spending amidst the uncertainty and economic hit caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“In this year of especially limited new resources, we are prioritizing addressing our long-term liabilities and making targeted new investments in programs and services we know will make the biggest impact on our residents, including public education, housing and public health,” Walsh wrote in a letter to the council accompanying the budget proposal.

Walsh at his State of the City address in January vowed more funding for schools and housing, and the mayor maintains that this $3.65 billion budget would keep those promises. The bulk of the new spending is $97 million for schools, with $80 million going to Boston Public Schools and $17 million to charters. BPS’ proposed budget is now $1.3 billion.

Then there’s $16 million more for housing, including cash toward the rent voucher program Walsh promised to create.

The city also would be putting $26 million more toward pensions and debt service.

And the other area of increase is $9 million more into the Boston Public Health Commission, mainly for new supplies for EMS workers dealing with the current global coronavirus pandemic

Past years’ budgets have seen overall increases more in the range of 5% or 6%.

“It’s definitely a smaller budget than we were projecting a couple of months ago,” city budget director Justin Sterritt told the Herald of the FY21 budget proposal.

Much of the city’s budget — around 72% — is funded by property taxes, a source

Sterritt described as “very stable” and expected to have continued increases as property values continue to rise.

Walsh announced earlier this week that deadlines for paying property taxes would be moving back, but there won’t be large-scale changes in how the taxes are collected and how much people have to pay, Sterritt said.

The administration had until today to submit the first draft of the budget.