Boston Council Hears Calls to Restore Grant Cuts to Immigrant, LGBTQIA2S Plus Offices

BOSTON — May 12, 2026 — Boston City Council budget hearing draws packed room over equity office grant cuts. The Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by District 6 Councillor Ben Weber, convened a nearly three-hour hearing Tuesday on proposed fiscal year 2027 budgets for four equity-focused city offices, where the sharpest attention fell on the Mayor's Office of LGBTQIA2S Plus Advancement, whose contracted services budget was cut 87 percent, eliminating all three grant programs, and the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Advancement, which lost funding for English classes, mutual aid, mental health programming, and immigration legal access grants. Julianne Lee, executive director of MOLA, confirmed the office retains only $45,000 in non-personnel spending for FY27, down from roughly $343,600. Councillor Ricardo Arroyo Santana said restoring grants to both offices would be his "number one priority" and called on colleagues to submit amendments before the June budget vote. More than 20 residents and nonprofit leaders testified in person or virtually, including Trey Andre Valentine of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, who noted the council voted 12 to 1 in March 2026 to make Boston a sanctuary city for transgender people and said the grant cuts "undermine the very promise this council made." Claudia Green of English for New Bostonians asked councillors to restore $500,000 for parent ESL classes, a program the council backed unanimously last June.