Welcome back. I’m still Malachi Barrett.
I’ve spent countless hours over the last month tracking the process of crafting Detroit’s 2025-26 budget. Late Monday, just before midnight, the City Council unanimously approved the $3 billion spending plan.
The budget included $26 million in changes to Mayor Mike Duggan’s budget proposal. Council members spent last week negotiating to shift funding to pet projects and community priorities. Read our coverage to see how it shook out.
Collaborative coverage by BridgeDetroit, Outlier Media and the Detroit Documenters helped continue a recent trend of growing public participation in the budget process. I also heard from observers like Steve Watson, a self-proclaimed budget nerd who co-founded consulting firm Watson & Yates after previously serving as Detroit’s budget director.
Watson identified three key takeaways from this year’s process that I thought were worth sharing:
1. Detroit zeroed out funding for the land bank.
Watson said the “perennial punching bag” has a hefty surplus to continue operating for years, but this cut tees up bigger questions about the land bank’s future.
Council President Mary Sheffield has said she wants to bring management of the land bank’s inventory within Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department.
“While this funding cut may signal the first step towards dissolution, it could instead pave the way for a more nuanced management overhaul under our next mayor,” Watson said.
Duggan recommended cutting the land bank’s subsidy by more than half, dropping from $10.5 million to $5 million. The council went one step further, eliminating the funding entirely.
2. The council resisted calls to ‘double DDOT’
Transit advocates are among the loudest voices in Detroit’s budget process, in part thanks to efforts of organizers like Michael Cunningham II, who has invited nearly every city official in the region to ride the bus with him and see the system’s shortcomings first-hand.
Transit is an increasingly relevant political issue for leaders who recognize Detroit needs a reliable network to attract young people.
That’s why it may seem surprising that the City Council didn’t adjust Duggan’s budget for DDOT. Advocates called for doubling the budget over the next five years, starting with a $16 million boost on top of $20 million Duggan included in his recommendation. The total budget is $209 million.
Watson said the council seemed satisfied with the boost and assurances from DDOT Director Robert Cramer that the current capital program includes plans to hire drivers, add new shelters and make other upgrades. The council dropped a $16 million funding request.
Activist Renard Monczunski said Tuesday it was “momentous to hear so many voices in support of public transit” even if “we might not get everything we want.”
Cunningham called me Tuesday to report he’s “flaming hot” over their loss.
“We worked hard for them to even offer it,” Cunningham said. “Everyone who has power over this doesn’t ride the bus. It was a hard fight. This campaign took a lot.”
Watson tipped me off to another major DDOT battle on the horizon. The city is poised to negotiate a new labor agreement with the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents bus drivers.
Watson said bus driver pay “will likely increase significantly” due to competing pressure from the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, which last year became the highest-paying transit network in Michigan.
“DDOT’s budget will reflect that increase next year, not unlike the substantial growth seen in both the Police and Fire Department budgets when the City increased their pay and began filling more of their vacancies,” Watson said.
3. Duggan gave the council a piece of the ARPA pie
Duggan gave the council some control over $14.5 million in unspent ARPA funds. This was the first time the administration gave council members their own “bucket” to use during the budget process, Watson said.
Detroit received a total of $827 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the money came in, council members have been fighting for more say in how it’s used.
Categories of uses were authorized by a previous iteration of the council in 2021. All of the funding was obligated for specific contracts at the end of 2024.
Roughly two thirds of the funds were spent (64%) as of March 26. The administration proposed moving $14 million from demolition and capital projects to the council.
The council directed $5 million to homelessness services, and split the remaining $9 million. Each of the nine members has $1 million.
They can only use it to shore upexisting programs – it’s too late to create new programs under federal law.
“The City must spend all its remaining ARPA fiscal recovery funds by the end of 2026 amidst heightened federal scrutiny from the Trump Administration,” Watson said. “It will be the next mayor’s job to oversee the close out of this once-in-a-lifetime grant.”
What page are we on?
Today’s notebook covers the April 8 formal session.
Dig into the agenda, read Detroit Documenter notes or watch the recording for more details.
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What didn’t make it into the budget?
I’m no budget expert like Watson but allow me to call your attention to another part of the budget process I find pretty interesting.
The vast majority of what council members seek to add to the budget ends up on the cutting-room floor due to budget constraints. Leftover pieces of the budget puzzle are listed in a closing resolution that asks Duggan to support council priorities if surplus revenue is found.
The council is fiscally conservative and “does not completely fund all its priorities” but strongly urges Duggan, “in light of the historic surpluses,” to apply revenue increases to items included in the document.
Legislative Policy Director David Whitaker said this year’s list was twice as long as the typical year, which partly explains why it took so long on Monday night to approve the budget. For comparison, the resolution was 11 pages last year and 29 pages this year.
There’s a lot in the document. Here are a few things that stood out to me.
The council requested working with “appropriate partners” to create a rent subsidy program for the city’s lowest-income residents.
In recognition of Detroit’s flourishing but under-resourced film industry, the council asked for an unnamed amount of funding to support independent filmmakers acquire technology, distribute their movies and meet other needs.
DDOT confirmed it found money in its budget to offer free rides to the polls on election days.
The council asked Duggan to spend $2.3 million on new bus shelters and create a free fare program for school-age students. They also asked Duggan to put a service coordinator in the Rosa Parks Transit Center to support the unhoused residents who shelter there.
The City Council suggested a partnership between the Green Grocer program and Eastern Market vendors. The council had tried to add $350,000 in recurring funding for the Green Grocer Program, which offers grants to neighborhood grocery stores.
The council also asked for sidewalk improvements around Eastern Market to improve walkability and safety, particularly near highway entrances and exits.
Last year, $250,000 was allocated to support Black farmers in Eastern Market, but the board hasn’t yet finalized a program to use the funds. Duggan agreed to carry the funding over to the next budget year.
The closing resolution urges city departments to take responsibility of several land bank programs, including:
- Occupied buyback, which allows people living in homes acquired by the land bank to buy the property back.
- Nuisance abatement program, which requires property owners to renovate their property or risk having their ownership rights revert back to the land bank
- End the land bank’s right of refusal for foreclosed property, which gives it first dibs on tax-foreclosed property
- The City Council also wants to select four of five members on the land bank’s board. Detroit’s mayor currently has power to choose all the members, though Duggan has agreed to give one pick to the council.
Creating a study is one way council members build a case to fund future programs. The closing resolution included lots of them. Subjects include:
- Creating a main street overlay for the Van Dyke corridor to develop walkable commercial spaces.
- Installing public bathrooms in all city parks.
- A local sales tax, including taxes on entertainment in the Central Business District
- A split-rate tax that had been promoted by Duggan but sputtered out in the state Legislature
- A recycling program in commercial corridors
- Strategies to encourage the development of new infill housing
- The impact of a Neighborhood Opportunity Fund that provides grants to public service programs
- Expanding the Right To Counsel program to include legal assistance to residents facing debt collection actions
- Using air taxies and drones to transport freight
Overheard in CAYMAC
Straight from the mouths of Detroiters, here are some points of intrigue pulled from Tuesday’s meeting.
Stephen Rimmer, an organizer with Detroit Tenants Association, wants an update on a proposed ordinance that would give renters the ability to extend their leases and avoid sudden evictions. Rimmer said organizers have been in a long conversation with Sheffield’s office and asked about the status of the legislation.
“I know you’re really busy, especially running for mayor, but people right now are being unjustly evicted day after day,” Rimmer said. “Could you make some time to support Detroit tenants?”
Sheffield said she’s been busy with budget deliberations for the last month while the Law Department has been assigned to draft the ordinance language. She pledged to check in on the process.
A few residents criticized the land bank for suing the owner of a distinct castle-like complex he’s spent years building up. Jahdante Smith said the land bank shouldn’t use its Nuisance and Abatement Program to go after property owners like Charles Brooks who are trying to revitalize their neighborhoods.
Smith pointed to a 2019 Office of the Ombudsman report that recommended ending the program for residents.
Ombudsman Bruce Simpson called it a useful tool to address out-of-town investors who walk away from their properties in the report. He also said it’s “highly hypocritical for the DLBA, which cannot maintain the property within its own inventory, to take property from residents of the city that are attempting to rehab their properties.”
Another anonymous caller said the situation shows why the land bank should be abolished.
Deputy Police Chief Franklin Hayes assured the City Council “there will be no immigration enforcement” at the annual Cinco de Mayo Parade and festival next month in Southwest Detroit.
Hayes said there will be no coordination with federal Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents in response to questions posed by Council Member Coleman Young II. Hayes said he and Police Chief Todd Bettison plan to attend, “to make sure all enjoy and patrons can do so safely and unharmed in any way.”
Last year’s festival inspired frustrations from residents after police ticketed attendees and cleared streets due to overcrowding and permitting issues.
Melissa Love has come to the City Council several times this year to raise concerns about voter fraud. Love said she did not vote in the August 2024 primary, but the City Clerk certified she did. Love said “God’s truth will be exposed” and voiced support for Ramon Jackson, who is running for an at-large seat on the City Council.
Joanne Rucerk-Manning, a co-owner of Granny Farms, thanked Council President Pro Tem James Tate Jr. for spearheading recreational marijuana licensing in Detroit. She said Tate also helped the grow facility get the necessary approvals.