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Council to vote on city budget
School funding remains at issue
By Meg Bernhard
Globe Correspondent

The Boston City Council will vote Wednesday on Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s proposed $2.98 billion budget for the next fiscal year, including the contentious matter of funding for public schools.

In an interview, Walsh said he is “confident’’ the council will approve his fiscal year 2017 plan. And according to Samuel R. Tyler, president of the nonprofit Boston Municipal Research Bureau, the council is expected to pass it — but the vote will likely not be unanimous.

Tyler said the “most controversial’’ piece of the budget is the school allocation.

Walsh revised his original budget earlier this month after critics charged he did not allocate enough money to schools, providing the School Department a new total annual investment of $1.032 million, an increase from last year.

But some activists and council members said Walsh should find more funds for the city’s schools. At a committee hearing on Monday, Councilor Tito Jackson charged that not enough money is directed at school-level budget cuts, such as in special education. And in a press release, the Boston Education Justice Alliance characterized Walsh’s increase as a “small bump in funds’’ and requested Walsh add $26 million to the budget for education.

Walsh’s proposed budget does not reflect likely increases in wages, as some unions will undergo collective bargaining over the next year, nor does it reflect uncertainty over state funding. According to Boston’s Chief Financial Officer David Sweeney, the net state aid is projected to decrease by $3 million next year.

Meg Bernhard can be reached at meg.bernhard@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @meg_bernhard.