Detroit City Council submits budget to Mayor Dave Bing's office

DETROIT (WXYZ) - A budget for the city of Detroit has now been hashed out and submitted to Mayor Dave Bing in advance of the June 30 deadline.

There are a lot of tough cuts involved, but council told 7 Action News reporter Glenda Lewis that the pain is necessary to get the city back on track.

“we are broke,” said Council President Charles Pugh. “So we have got to spend only the money that we bring in.”

Pugh made it plain that the new budget that passed will be tough, with deep cuts coming to about 2,600 jobs.

“We had to cut about $250 million out of this budget compared to last year's budget,” Pugh says. “The reality is that we’re gonna have to be a smaller, more efficient government.”

In a budget proposal that mirrored the consent agreement EMA and firefighters will take a hit. Lighting will be privatized and the Human Services Department hit hard.

Council member Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. says they were able to save some things the mayor may have had on the chopping block.

“There were a number of city departments, for example, that he just wanted to eliminate their budgets’ completely – take them down to zero, and we did not do that - for example, in the case of the health and wellness promotion department, Cockrel says. “The reality is we are gonna have to look at providing some services differently. Public lighting is one of them. There are a lot of unanswered questions there.”

What is not in question? The commitment and patience Council President Pugh says residents need to hold on to.

“Citizens are just gonna have to work with us and understand, you know, we are going through a tough next two to three years,” Pugh says.”But on the other side of that, I think people need to know that things will improve. We’ll be able to deliver city services better  and our fiscal health as a city government will be a lot better and it we’ll on much more solid ground/”