Detroit council spends fourth executive session narrowing Mayor Duggan’s $3 billion budget; dozens of line items added, moved or removed

Detroit City Council members spent a fourth executive-session meeting reviewing possible changes to Mayor Mike Duggan’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget, voting to add and remove line items, to move some matters into the closing resolution and to earmark specific one‑time expenditures — while administration and council staff disagreed on how much discretionary funding was realistically available.

The session, led by Legislative Policy Division staffer Mr. Thomas Corley, began with a reminder of the budget’s scale: “we are only working with a finite set of dollars of around $3,000,000,000,” Corley said, and he emphasized that council can directly influence roughly $1,600,000,000 in the general fund while the remainder is restricted for enterprise, grant or dedicated uses. That framing guided much of the discussion as members debated whether requests could be funded from one‑time surplus, projected revenue, ARPA dollars or recurring cuts.

Why it matters: Council must adopt a final fiscal 2026 budget by its April deadline. Any monetary changes the council approves must be offset by identified sources and will be reflected on Schedule B at the council vote; the administration may veto council changes before an override vote is possible.

Most significant funding debates

LPD staff presented a sources memo that identified roughly $51 million in proposed one‑time general fund sources and about $6.5 million in recurring sources available for council changes. CFO Stoudemire disputed portions of that assessment, saying the administration’s estimate of available fund balance and carryover was lower and urging caution: “we vehemently disagree with this. We think the estimates that Mr. Corley has indicated here for ’25 and ’26 are too low,” Stoudemire said, and warned the risk management fund remains a major exposure.

Council members asked staff to prioritize aligning proposed additions with funding sources before approving large lists of items. Corley said LPD would continue updating the executive‑session spreadsheet daily and recommended starting by voting on sources before taking each line item.

Actions taken and items added

Council members moved a large number of discrete…