Sienkevych says that Mykolaiv's budget does not have the funds to increase teachers' salaries, as initiated by the state

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that the Mykolaiv budget does not have the funds to increase teachers' salaries, as initiated by the state.

The mayor said this during his report on his activities for 2025, according to NikVesti.

As is known, the Cabinet of Ministers has decided to increase salaries for teaching staff by 30% from January 2026 and by a further 20% from September.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych says that there is no money in the city budget to increase salaries, as the city is short of 1.5 billion hryvnias this year.

«In 2026, people will receive less salary, not more, but less than they received last year. Therefore, we appealed to the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers. Next week, we will have a meeting, I hope, with people's deputies from Mykolaiv, with the head of the Regional State Administration, and we will see how we can still get money from the state budget. That is, today we actually need an additional 1.5 billion hryvnias.

And when the state decides to increase teachers' salaries and puts this on local communities, we say: «Sorry, we cannot provide what we have. We are asking for your help, and you are asking us to increase our expenses even more.» Well, it's just unrealistic,» explained Oleksandr Sienkevych.

The mayor believes that increasing teachers' salaries is only possible with support from the state budget.

«Yesterday, the Association of Cities made an appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers regarding this amendment, stating that it is only possible with state support, but not with local funds. In other words, Mykolaiv is not the only community facing this situation today. Of course, there are communities that have surplus budgets. For this purpose, there is a reverse subsidy instrument, i.e. taking money from local communities that have a surplus budget and giving it to those that have a deficit,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

We would like to remind you that at the end of 2025, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that the problem of low salaries in the city council is acute. The difference between the salaries of local government officials and civil servants is 50-100%, he said. Therefore, the mayor explained, salaries for officials can only be increased with financial assistance from the state budget.

As for the new budget for 2026, according to Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych, it is essentially a survival budget and does not cover all the needs of the community.

In total, the budget revenues for 2026 amount to 5 billion 546 million hryvnias, while the total budget expenditures amount to 5 billion 275 million 353 thousand 815 hryvnias.

To meet the city's needs, at the session on 30 December, deputies appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to provide an additional subsidy from the state budget.

The deputies also appealed to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers with a request to increase the salaries of cultural workers. The document refers to the critically low level of wages in the cultural sector.

According to the city's calculations, its own budget revenues for 2026 are only sufficient to cover 82.5% of actual needs, and the financial resource deficit exceeds 1 billion 140 million hryvnias.