After a multi-million dollar budget cut in 2020 due to the pandemic, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan presented a new budget to City Council.
In council chambers on Monday, Duggan and other city officials presented a $1.2 billion general spending fund plan.
The proposed budget prioritized the retiree pension fund, maintaining city buildings, improvements to transit service, blight remediation and neighborhood beautification projects.
Duggan allocated around $50 million dollars for one-time investments into maintaining city buildings, parks, museums, the city airport and neighborhood planning studies.
It also included a $30 million dollar deposit into the city’s Rainy Day Fund.
Duggan called it a “post-COVID budget.”
This plan follows a $400 million dollar budget cut in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Duggan says this will be the city’s eighth balanced budget.
The budget is for the fiscal year and begins July 1 and ends July 30, 2023.
About $72.3 million in the city's general fund would be for improvements to DDOT transit service and the People Mover. $17.5 million is planned to go to blight remediation and beautification projects in the city.
Detroit City Council will be hosting budget public hearings over the next few weeks.
The Council will need to vote on whether it will approve the budget by April 14.
