With the government shutdown now in its fourth week, Mayor Michelle Wu said Boston officials are planning ways to plug some of the gaps caused by missing federal resources.
Wu said on Boston Public Radio Friday that the city’s been in talks with community groups working on food security and other efforts to help affected households.
“But the federal government is the federal government,” she said. “There’s no amount of resources or executive action or even legislation that could undo the scale of what is happening right now. We will do our very best to try to continue to step in and support and hold things together, but this is not a situation that state and local governments are going to be able to step in and entirely replace health care coverage or access to food and early education.”
Wu addressed several other topics during her monthly radio appearance, from President Donald Trump’s threat to move the World Cup out of Massachusetts to local property taxes.
On the World Cup
Wu knocked Trump’s suggestion earlier this month that he could pull 2026 FIFA World Cup games out of Massachusetts as “a random musing.” Trump cited safety concerns and said Wu, as mayor, is “not good.”
The matches are scheduled for next summer in Foxborough, though Boston is billed as the official host city and will be home to related fan events.
The location of the games is up to FIFA, and Wu said she’s been in touch with local organizers who assured her their contracts are already in place after years of planning.
“Boston is honored to be one of the host cities, and we are going to have a great, great next summer between FIFA, Tall Ships, 250th anniversary, birthday of our country, all in a community that is safe and not just safe, but welcoming, beautiful, vibrant,” Wu said. “And we’re excited to show that to the whole world.”
On Property Taxes
Wu made waves at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce event last month, when she suggested the state should take another look at Proposition 2 ½, the voter-passed law that limits annual increases to local property taxes.
On Friday, she said Massachusetts needs “a new system,” whether that comes from repeal of the law or a “different pathway.”
She said cities and towns face “immense pressure” from the tax-hike cap as they try to maintain the same level of services while inflation rises.
On ICE agents masking
Wu said she’d support legislation on Beacon Hill that would ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from wearing masks on the job, similar to a policy recently adopted in California.
She said immigration enforcement authorities are using methods that are “not respecting due process.”
“Not even sharing with people’s family members, as they’re there witnessing a detention take place, where they are taking their loved one and why, the masks, the secret police tactics — all of this, again, is designed to create a show that is meant to instill fear and silence people who disagree with this administration,” Wu said.
On Moulton vs. Markey
Wu, a Democrat, opted not to take a side at this point in U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton’s primary challenge against Sen. Ed Markey.
“I am focused right now entirely on the city races,” said Wu, who is running unopposed but backing some City Council candidates. “We are just over a week to go, and Nov. 4th we want to make sure that there’s as high turnout as possible. So that’s going to be my focus until then.”
