Dugan’s 2025-2026 $3B Budget Proposes Property Tax Cut, Enhanced Funding for City Services
Last month, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan proposed a $3 billion plan for the 2025-2026 budget, requesting more funding for community violence intervention, services to help the city’s homeless, and the largest property tax reduction in over a decade.
According to a Bridge Detroit report, Duggan’s 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 drop from 8 to 7 mills in 2024.
Duggan is also proposing $20 million for Detroit’s Department of Transportation budget. If the budget is approved, the shift in funding, from $190 million to $210 million, would put more buses on the city’s streets since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The mayor also proposes approximately $4.4 million to continue funding for the city’s Community Violence Intervention (CVI) program. Funds would permit CVI groups to continue with their work while withdrawing bonus funding for successfully decreasing violent crime.
Services for the homeless are another area Duggan is focusing on to help at-risk or unhoused individuals. Dugan proposes $8.4 million for homelessness services, an increase of $6 million in the 2024-25 budget cycle. This adjustment would boost the number of immediate shelter beds from 110 to 220 and grow the number of outreach workers.
Additionally, the mayor’s proposed budget includes an increase in the city’s pension contributions from $76 million to $82 million. Most of this funding comes from $350 million in savings from the Retiree Protection Fund and $6 million from the city’s general fund.
Finally, $21 million is allocated for emergency demolitions. This figure reflects a shift from the $250 million in bond funding Detroit voters approved in 2020 to demolish 8,000 abandoned residences and the $95 million in funding from the American Rescue Act that went toward demolishing eyesore commercial structures.
