Mykolaiv City Council to ask government for additional subsidy: over ₴1.1bn needed

The Mykolaiv City Council plans to appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to provide an additional subsidy from the state budget. According to the city's estimates, its own budget revenues for 2026 are only 82.5% of the real need, and the financial resource deficit exceeds 1 billion 140 million hryvnias.

The mayor announced this during a meeting of the executive committee, reading out the text of the appeal to be submitted to the city council session, NikVesti reports.

According to the mayor, even after spending cuts and budget revisions, the community has no more money.

«No matter how much we divide this budget, there is no more money. We are not talking about full-fledged capital or current expenditures now — this is a budget of existence. We are working to cover this difference,» he said.

The appeal says that Mykolaiv remains a frontline community that has been operating in war conditions for a long time, has suffered large-scale destruction of housing, social and critical infrastructure, and has lost a significant part of its revenue base. At the same time, the city continues to exercise all the powers of local governments and provide basic services to residents.

The city council has taken the most restrained approach to budgeting for 2026. In particular, the expenditures on labour remuneration of public sector employees were calculated at the level of the actual salary paid in 2025 — without indexation. Current expenditures, with the exception of protected items and the minimum necessary for the operation of public utilities, were not included in the basic budget.

In addition, the budget did not take into account the increase in the minimum wage from 1 January 2026, which is planned at the state level. The city council believes that this creates additional risks of an increase in the budget deficit and complicates the implementation of state social guarantees.

Capital expenditures were limited to about 300 million hryvnias, which is only for the maintenance and restoration of critical infrastructure. At the same time, the city has fully taken into account its debt obligations: debt service in 2026 will cost 480.5 million hryvnias.

The appeal also emphasises the financial condition of the municipal utility company «Mykolaivvodokanal». The company's estimated need for support in 2026 is 750 million hryvnias. This is due to military damage to water supply and sewage systems, rising energy costs, and the need to ensure uninterrupted water supply to the city. At the same time, the draft budget provides for these expenses only within the available resources.

Another factor in the community's financial instability was the loss of a portion of the personal income tax. Due to changes in the budget legislation and the removal of personal income tax from the salaries of military personnel and law enforcement officers, the Mykolaiv city council estimates that the city budget lost about 26% of this tax. Revenues were also affected by the relocation of enterprises, business disruption and the reduction in the activities of large taxpayers.

As a result, Mykolaiv's projected budget revenues for 2026 of around 5.46 billion hryvnias do not cover the total required expenditures, which exceed 6.6 billion hryvnias.

In this regard, the city council will ask the state authorities to provide an additional subsidy of at least 1.14 billion hryvnias, taking into account the status of Mykolaiv as a frontline community. The appeal also assures of its readiness for strict budget discipline, transparent use of funds and further cooperation with the state authorities.

As a reminder, the draft budget of the Mykolaiv City Territorial Community for 2026 has been amended after discussion with the deputy commissions, including the budget and publicity committees. During the executive committee meeting, the mayor stressed that the budget for 2026 is actually a subsistence budget and does not cover all the needs of the community.