Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan proposed a $3 billion plan Friday for the 2025-26 budget that calls for more funding for community violence intervention, homeless services, the city’s bus system and pensioners as well as the largest property tax cut in over a decade.

The mayor laid out those priorities and more during his 12th and final balanced budget following the city’s municipal bankruptcy. 

Duggan’s budget proposal called for a 3-mill reduction in the debt millage, or $150 in property tax savings for homes with a taxable value of $100,000. The decrease follows reductions of one mill in each of the last two years, and a reduction from 8 to 7 mills last year. 

The mayor said the reduction “doesn’t affect operations or cut into services.” 

“Given where we are, I suspect a 3-mill property tax cut is going to be welcome,” Duggan told Detroit City Council members, crediting an increase in tax revenue for the city’s millage rate reduction.

More buses

The single biggest dollar increase Duggan is proposing this year is $20 million for the Department of Transportation budget. If approved, the shift, from $190 million to $210 million, would allow the city to put more buses on the road than Detroit has seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s been a long road back. We have the right director at DDOT now and the right support now,” he said. 

Duggan said the goal is to increase the number of buses on the road every day from 178 to 220, and hire 63 more drivers and 24 more mechanics. Despite the effort, Duggan said increases in bus service in the future will depend on what happens in Washington D.C. over the next year.

Ending violence 

Duggan’s budget proposes $4.4 million to continue funding for the city’s Community Violence Intervention (CVI) program, which has received attention for its success in driving violent crime down to historically low levels. The funds would allow CVI groups to continue their work but it won’t allow bonus funding for successfully decreasing violent crime, which Duggan said was intended to be a key aspect of the program. 

A bill that included about $75 million for public safety funding passed the state House but it abruptly stalled in the state Legislature on the last day lawmakers were in session in December. Without that funding, the CVI program has been in jeopardy. 

“We are in a bizarre situation,” Duggan said about the uncertainty around the Public Safety Trust Fund that would have provided funding to cities across the state for public safety initiatives, including $18 million to the city of Detroit. “We have not had the advocacy that you would hope for.”

The mayor also called on city council members to lobby state legislators to act on the bills. “We need every member of this council advocating for this Public Safety Trust Fund,” Duggan said. 

Homicides are down from 400 in 2012 to 200 last year, and Duggan said he’s hoping to see that number decrease to double digits in the upcoming year. 

“We can see the day when this city has fewer than 100 homicides,” he told the council.

Homeless services

Another focus for Duggan is increasing funding for services to unhoused and at risk individuals. 

The budget proposes $8.4 million for homelessness services, up from $6 million in the 2024-25 budget cycle. The boost would  double the number of immediate shelter beds from 110 to 220 and increase the number of outreach workers.

The pitch came a day after the city released a seven-point plan to address holes in the homelessness safety net in an effort to prevent another tragedy like the Feb. 10 death of two children sleeping in a van in a casino parking garage. 

“We have learned in the tragic circumstances this month, we need to do more,” Duggan said Friday. 

Last year marked the first time the city council approved the use of $6 million from the General Fund for homelessness services, doubling the $6 million the city received from the federal government, Duggan said.  

City Council President Mary Sheffield said she’s thought about whether the city’s Right to Counsel ordinance, which ensures access to free lawyers for low-income Detroiters facing eviction, could’ve played a role in the circumstances that impacted Tateona Williams and her family. Williams’ two of her children – 2-year-old A’millah Currie and 9-year-old Darnell Currie Jr. – died of apparent hypothermia while living in a vehicle in a Greektown casino parking structure. The official cause of death for the children could take months, according to the medical examiner’s office. Duggan said the issue for the family wasn’t eviction, but rather a “family situation that changed.” 

Money that was appropriated for Right to Counsel but wasn’t spent will be carried forward into the next fiscal year.

“I think we all need to figure out what more we can do,” said Sheffield, adding that she’s concerned about an increase in homelessness among children. 

Councilmember Angela Whitfield-Calloway advocated for using recreation centers as shelters, such as the Northwest Activity Center, which is located on a major bus service line. 

“I don’t think the problem is a shortage of facilities, at least in this case (the Feb. 10 incident), the problem was communication,” Duggan said in response, adding that nobody has been turned away from a drop-in shelter since Dec. 16 and he’s confident nobody will be turned away next winter. 

Pension investments

The mayor’s budget plan also accounts for an increase in the city’s pension contributions from $76 million to $82 million, with the majority coming from $350 million saved in the Retiree Protection Fund and $6 million from the general fund. The fund has helped reduce the reliance on general fund money to fund the city’s pension plans. 

An additional $10 million in supplemental payments would go to retirees in the form of a 13th check, with $5 million going toward the police and fire pension and $5 million for general retirees. 

Demolitions, lawsuits and more

The mayor’s proposed budget would allocate $21 million solely for emergency demolitions as the city shifts away from the $250 million in bond funding voters approved in 2020 to demolish 8,000 abandoned houses and the $95 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding spent on the demolition of dilapidated commercial buildings. 

Council Member Latisha Johnson shared her interest in allocating money to explore the use of alternative financing mechanisms to build more affordable housing, such as community land trusts. Duggan reiterated that he supports land trusts but said the city hasn’t reached an agreement with nonprofit organizations to begin the work.

City Council President Pro Tem James Tate expressed interest in addressing the sale of illegal substances to minors and, specifically, process-related delays. 

Duggan said newly appointed Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison has “insisted” on more assistance from BSEED and the law department to address this issue. 

Whitfield-Calloway also addressed concerns about the millions of dollars the city spends on lawsuit settlements each year and whether it takes resources away from other needs such as housing. Duggan said DDOT lawsuits are trending down while the Law Department is vigorously defending these cases.

When it comes to wrongful conviction cases, Duggan said it’s a unique challenge and he didn’t believe the process was fair when he worked for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. 

“We have got wrongful conviction cases where what the police officer did was a minor piece of it, but the city of Detroit ends up with 100% of the liability because of the way the law is structured,” he said.