Mayor Michelle Wu has rejected a set of pay raises for Boston officials, placing her in the rare position of politically opposing a united City Council.
Wu’s veto comes nearly two weeks after the 13-member council unanimously approved a boost of their annual pay by 20% — from $103,500 to $125,000.
The council-approved measure would also boost pay for the mayor’s office by 20% to an annual $250,000.
Councilors acted after Wu proposed an 11% increase for the mayor and councilors, which was the recommendation from the city’s compensation advisory board.
Wu urged the council to approve her more modest proposal given that other city workers have gone without pay increases since the days before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mayor pointed to the fact that most pay increases for Boston city workers come by way of contract negotiations. Additionally, Wu said, “every single collective bargaining agreement with our City unions had expired” when she took office last November.
“Like all workers, our elected officials should receive salary increases, but they should square with the increases that our frontline workers have received and are in the contracts that we continue to settle,” Wu said in a letter accompanying the veto Monday.
Wu signaled a possible veto last week on GBH News’ Boston Public Radio, adding that the council could override her veto with a two-thirds vote.
The council approved the 20% increase by a unanimous vote and, presumably, has the votes to usurp the mayor so long as nine councilors maintain their support for the bigger pay bump.
Neither Council President Ed Flynn nor At-Large Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, the interim chair of the Government Operations Committee who shepherded the pay raise measure through council procedure, immediately responded GBH News’ calls for comment regarding the veto Monday.
Wu had previously vetoed the council on at least two occasions — once over the allocation Boston Police overtime and again over a provision to allocate pandemic relief funds towards the creation of a privately owned field house in Dorchester. Both came as the mayor and City Council hammered out details of the city budget.
