BOSTON — Just ten days after Mayor Michelle Wu handed out $4.4 million for illegal immigrant lawyers and groceries, she announced City Hall can't afford staplers.

The mayor unveiled an emergency spending freeze Thursday on office supplies, travel, and building repairs through June, citing rising energy costs and snow removal expenses as the city faces a budget crunch.

The memo to department heads was blunt: All spending frozen for transportation, travel, food supplies, office supplies, furniture, and equipment through fiscal year end June 30. Building repairs and equipment service slashed 50%.

City departments must "limit overtime spending to non-discretionary duties." No staplers. No conferences. No catered meetings.

On March 10, Wu announced $4.4 million in funding for immigrants facing deportation — including $879,265 for legal defense, $269,517 for mental health support, and $164,000 for groceries.

The Office of Immigrant Advancement's budget has grown 21% over four years, from $2.95 million in fiscal 2023 to $3.57 million in fiscal 2026, with officials requesting even more for fiscal 2027.

City Hall employees, meanwhile, are being told the cupboard is bare.

Wu's battling city unions over health insurance, demanding workers accept cuts to GLP-1 drug coverage — Ozempic and Wegovy — to save between $8 million and $9 million annually. When unions balked, Wu's administration threatened to join the state's Group Insurance Commission, which has already eliminated GLP-1 coverage for weight loss entirely.

The scorecard: City workers lose Ozempic coverage, can't order office supplies, can't travel for work, and face delayed hiring. Illegal immigrants receive nearly $900,000 in legal defense funding plus $164,000 for groceries.

Boston homeowners are absorbing their second consecutive year of double-digit property tax increases — 13% this year on top of last year's hike. The average single-family home faces a $780 year-over-year increase, and a calendar quirk in January created a 26% spike when two fiscal years overlapped.

Wu has spent two years pushing the state legislature to shift more of the tax burden onto commercial properties, arguing that residential values rose 2% while commercial values fell 6% as downtown offices remain empty. The legislature repeatedly refused.

State Sen. Nick Collins stood up to Wu's tax shift scheme — twice — with a message: The mayor has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Collins pointed out that Boston is sitting on surplus funds that could be used for tax rebates instead of jacking up taxes on struggling commercial properties. The Senate sided with Collins in January 2026.

Meanwhile, $200 million in state and federal street safety funding sits at risk because Wu imposed a policy requiring her personal approval on most projects after facing backlash over controversial bike lane proposals. Fewer than two dozen speed humps were installed last year, down from 600 in 2024.

City Council President Liz Breadon — typically a Wu ally — filed a hearing order demanding clarity on the mayor's transit priorities.

City officials blamed the spending freeze on "unexpected snow removal expenses driven by two major winter storms," as Massachusetts blew past its $85 million snow budget to spend $156.5 million statewide after more than 60 inches fell in Boston.

Boston residents paying 13% more in property taxes were treated to massive snowbanks and poorly cleared roads. All that snow removal left no money for staplers.

Wu deserves credit for hitting the brakes on city spending, even if it came three-quarters through the fiscal year. The spending freeze acknowledges Boston can't hemorrhage cash while homeowners absorb double-digit tax increases.

The question: Why wait until March 20 when budget pressures were obvious in December? City officials claim they started cutting costs in early December — yet the $4.4 million immigrant services announcement came just 10 days ago.

City Hall workers will make do without printer paper until July.