It’s time for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to come clean on her own bloated budget.

Since she wouldn’t come clean on the commercial tax hike plan – which is now dead in the water in the Legislature – maybe she’ll be more forthcoming about the $4.6 billion budget, which fattened by 8% this year.

Take a break from Santa and the magical Enchanted Trolley tour and order an outside, truly independent analysis to look at where all the millions of dollars of woke and politically correct programs like bike lanes and grants go and what can be cut.

Wu insists any cuts would be “financially irresponsible” and harmful to the city’s residents and has resisted any attempts at paring the numerous expensive programs she has started. So prove it.

Wu has the political smarts and can be a convincing advocate for her causes, but has not shown that lately.

A non-partisan, independent review might satisfy critics who held back Wu’s commercial tax hike plan at the State House, claiming the mayor is not serious about spending cuts first.

There are groups like the Boston Fin Comm and the Boston Municipal Research Bureau but they lack the enforcement teeth to get it done. There’s also the conservative-leaning Mass Fiscal Alliance and the rubber stamp Boston City Council, which only recently got budgetary authority, but most councilors lack the political will and courage to challenge Wu and make serious cuts.

It might be time for Auditor Diana DiZoglio, who has the authority, to step in and conduct an independent investigation into the growing city budget.

DiZoglio is never going to audit the Legislature – whether voters approved it or not – but she can tackle the Boston mayor and her budget.

How about auditing the city budget instead of the Legislature?

Ask the Democratic mayor: Where are the cuts? What are the programs costing millions of dollars every year?

An audit of the city budget should drill down on the programs that Wu created that are getting all the money, and ask whether they are necessary.

Not only has Wu lost support on her home rule petition tax plan with her strong arm tactics – which include withholding key information from the City Council and Legislature – she’s losing even loyal Democrats at the State House.

State senators led by Boston Sen. Nick Collins for a third straight day moved to put Wu’s plan on the table – essentially killing it. Other top Democrats in the Senate also said Wu should finalize property tax rates without the increase in commercial taxes.

“I think anybody can see that this bill doesn’t have a lot of support,” Sen. William Brownsberger, whose district includes parts of Boston, said – a devastating assessment of Wu’s botching of the plan.

“Now we know the sky isn’t falling, and the campaign of fear and manipulation that took place and continues to take place is a farce,” Collins said on the Senate floor on Monday.

Collins is clearly angry at the mayor’s team. Whatever she’s doing isn’t working.

But a promise to conduct a serious outside look at the budget might temper some of that anger.

“Mayor Wu is very good at promising to spend more,” Paul Craney of Mass Fiscal Alliance said. “It’s easy to spend other people’s money. What she’s refused to do is look at recent new spending and ask the question, ‘Is it worth it?’ We hope after this latest embarrassment with the Boston commercial tax hike, more and more people will be skeptical.”

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The city of Boston could bring in State Auditor Diana DiZoglio to audit the city budget. The move might help repair relations on Beacon Hill, where Mayor Michelle Wu’s tax hike home rule petition has run aground. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald, File)
Seniors gather at the State House in September to voice their support for legislation to shift Boston’s tax rate onto commercial and business properties beyond state limits. The legislation has stalled on Beacon Hill after certified data showed that Mayor Michelle Wu’s estimates of impacts on residential property owners was of the mark. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald, File)