(WXYZ) — Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan submitted a spending plan for a $156 million budget surplus on Thursday. It now moves to the Detroit City Council for approval.
According to the mayor's office, he plans to spend the money replacing sidewalks, removing dangerous buildings and trees, updating transportation infrastructure and more.
The breakdown of each spending proposal is below.
- $20.5 million neighborhood sidewalk replacement program
- The mayor's office said it would address 70,000 damaged sidewalk slabs in the city
- $16.2 million to renovate city parks on a faster schedule than previously planned.
- The mayor's office said it would provide more than 20 neighborhood parks with new landscaping, equipment, and other amenities
- $13 million for demolition of dangerous or unsalvageable buildings
- $5 million for dangerous/dead tree removal
- $19.9 million for transportation
- The mayor's office said this will include purchasing replacement cars for the Detroit People Mover and some money will go to reusing the dairy cattle barn at the old State Fairgrounds for use as a new DDOT transit center
- $17.9 million in other one-time expenditures, including replacement bulletproof vests for police officers, elections equipment, citywide blight mapping, city fleet electrification, and pandemic response.
Duggan also said that $70 million will be used to help shore up the city's retiree protection plan and risk management fund. $10 million will go to make sure retiree pensions are not at risk, and $60 million would protect city services in the risk management fund.
“Last year’s surplus is a clear indication that the city’s economic recovery is continuing and will be put to use largely to make physical improvements to many of our neighborhoods,” Detroit's Chief Financial Officer Jay Rising said in a statement. “This reinvestment will help stimulate future growth and stability in the City’s finances, which will allow for more of this type of neighborhood investment in the future.”
According to the mayor's office, $74 million of the 2021-22 surplus revenue will be incorporated in Duggan's 2023-24 proposed budget.
