Mayor Mary Sheffield’s 2026-27 budget proposal will be delivered to the City Council in one month, and it will be important to watch for a few reasons.
Sheffield’s first budget is a reflection of her priorities and commitment to act on priorities expressed by residents in public forums. It’s the last chance to use remaining funds from $827 million in Biden administration pandemic relief, marking a new era of city finance. We’ll learn how much the city expects to collect in taxes and how it plans to spend that money on city operations, new projects and public services.
The budget is also a test of the new City Council’s ability to perform as a co-equal branch of the government. The council has the last word on authorizing the budget and can overturn a mayoral veto.
The previous council struggled to change the mayor’s budget plan and shift funding toward their priorities. Proposals that don’t make it into the budget end up in a list of requests for the administration to consider if funding is found later.
Sheffield, the former council president, worked on 12 budgets as a council member. She knows what it’s like to have requests left on the cutting-room floor. Now she has vastly more control over what makes it into the final spending plan.
That could make the difference for long-sought programs like participatory budgeting, which sets aside a slice of the budget for residents to decide. Sheffield has been studying the concept since at least 2016.
In the last two budget cycles, Sheffield asked the administration of former mayor Mike Duggan to allocate $1 million for a participatory budgeting program to give residents a “direct say” on spending in each council district.
Sheffield was open to implementing participatory budgeting on the campaign trail, saying it would “allow residents to feel more empowered” in the democratic process.
Some residents have been pushing for more say in the budget for years. Budget Director Donnie Johnson said it’s come up frequently in public forums organized for the upcoming budget.
“A lot of cities use a lot of different models for how they do participatory budgeting,” Johnson said during a Jan. 28 budget forum. “We wanted to find one that works well for a city as large as Detroit that makes sure that as many people as possible get to participate. We’re looking into how it would work here, so stay tuned.”
Invest Detroit led a participatory budgeting process in 2018 for a $250,000 investment in infrastructure around Clark Park. The process engaged residents who avoided the “mainstream political process” – nearly a third of participants didn’t vote in the prior mayoral election.
District 7 Council Member Denzel McCampbell has supported the concept. At-Large Council Member Mary Waters acknowledged community support for participatory budgeting but said it’s unclear what the council will do about it. Waters said the council has historically done a poor job of asserting control of the budget.
“The council could have more influence if (we) wanted to,” Waters said. “We could certainly assert our influence. We have the power to do so. People forget that. They are sometimes serving a subservient role and not understanding the powers that we do have. There might come a time that folks will realize it and will exercise that power. We shall see.”
In some cases, Duggan’s administration didn’t follow through on spending money that was allocated.
Enter: The phantom veto.
The Legislative Policy Division compiled a report last October showing council priorities that the prior administration failed to fund. District 2 Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway said these “phantom vetos” subvert the city charter, effectively blocking parts of the budget.
The prior council allocated $67.6 million to 147 priorities across three budget cycles going back to 2023. Most were carried out as intended but four of the appropriations weren’t spent.
The Law Department did not hire an intern to address a backlog in Freedom of Information Act requests despite being given $70,000 in 2023. The Police Department used existing staff to hire a special events ambassador instead of using $125,000 allocated.
A study focused on the city’s contracting and procurement processes wasn’t completed, despite a $350,000 allocation to the Civil Rights Inclusion and Opportunity Department. Last October, it was unclear to LPD whether a grant fund for Black-owned urban farms will be spent by Eastern Market. Nine awardees of the $240,000 grant program were announced Feb. 5.
LPD could not determine whether the funds were fully spent for 25 other appropriations, including $205,000 in funding for bus driver sensitivity training. LPD asked the Office of the Chief Financial Officer to provide updates on those items.
Sheffield, while serving as council president, led exhaustive budget deliberations with the Duggan administration, which shifted sums of money in pursuit of council priorities. On the campaign trail, Sheffield said she wanted to reduce demolition spending and invest more in foreclosure prevention and downpayment assistance programs.
When LPD’s phantom veto report landed last October, council members committed to keeping a tighter focus on making sure the administration follows through on spending commitments.
The City Council is in the process of finalizing the budget calendar. Sheffield is tentatively scheduled to present her budget proposal on March 9, with a public hearing set for March 30.
City departments are scheduled to brief the council on their budget, performance goals and financial needs in hour-long hearings from March 11 through April 2. The council must vote on the budget by April 7.