BOSTON — Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn is demanding Mayor Michelle Wu give up the $43,000 pay raise that took effect this year — as Wu digs in on a budget that cuts Boston Veterans Services by 14% and refuses to restore federal firefighter cancer-screening cash.

"Significant budget cuts should also take place at the Office of Neighborhood Services, Civic Organizing, People Operations, Communications and the Press Office," the South Boston Democrat wrote on X Sunday afternoon. "The 2026 pay raise of city councilors and the mayor should be immediately rescinded. It's time for positive leadership!"

Significant budget cuts should also take place at the Office of Neighborhood Services, Civic Organizing, People Operations, Communications and the Press Office. The 2026 pay raise of city councilors and the mayor should be immediately rescinded. It's time for positive leadership!
— Ed Flynn 愛德華費連 (@EdforBoston) May 17, 2026

The raise Flynn wants rescinded is the same one Wu vetoed in 2022 — before the council overrode her veto by a 9-4 vote. Wu's mayoral salary jumped 20%, from $207,000 to $250,000, effective January 2026. Councilors got their own bump from $120,000 to $125,000.

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Flynn isn't only asking the mayor to give back her $43,000. He wants the council to give back its own raises, too — his own $5,000 bump from $120,000 to $125,000 included.

Flynn's call lands as Mayor Wu — who has ballooned the city's annual budget by roughly $1.1 billion since taking office, from the $3.76 billion she inherited to the current $4.9 billion — refuses to add a dollar to her FY27 proposal. That budget cuts Boston Veterans Services by 14.6%, declines to restore $1.4 million in federal firefighter cancer-screening money the city lost last year, and faces a council with the votes to potentially reject it outright.

Flynn — a U.S. Navy veteran of 24 years, an Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran, and a former Boston City Council President — has been one of the loudest voices on the council against the veterans cut.

"I'm shocked that there is not an outcry from this body on cuts to the veterans department," Flynn told colleagues during the FY27 budget hearings. "Even five cents cutting the veterans budget — even five cents — sends a message that veterans are just like anybody else."

The mayor has not publicly responded to Flynn's Sunday demand.

Councilor demands Mayor Wu give up her $43,000 raise as veterans take a 14% cut and firefighters lose cancer-screening cash

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