Westland Mayor William R. Wild presented a $72 million balanced budget to members of the city council last week.The budget, for fiscal year 2020-2021, includes funding for planned infrastructure projects and planned water and sewer capital projects along with the purchase of a new fire rescue vehicle. The budget also includes funding for the retiree healthcare liability and funding for curbside recycling, approved by voters in August. The budget adds approximately $60,000 to the General Fund unassigned balance, preserving a “rainy day” fund balance at approximately $5.7 million, according to city officials. .
Highlights of proposed budget include an overall taxable value increase of 4.18 percent and a provision for the city match for 13 federally funded SAFER Grant firefighters, a plan to offer retirement-eligible Police Chief Jeff Jedrusik a 5-year contract to continue his employment, and funds to restart the Curbside Recycling Program.
The budget also includes an additional payment of $500,000 above costs, to lower the unfunded retiree healthcare (OPEB) liability. An additional $150,000 has also been allocated to offer cash incentives to retirees to discontinue city healthcare coverage.
The budget allocates planned infrastructure expenditures of $5.3 million for the major and local roads and also includes approximately $3.6 million to fund planned water and sewer capital projects. Provisions were also included for an additional $1 million in capital improvements, including a new fire rescue vehicle, roof repairs at the Department of Public Service building, and parking lot improvements at the 18th District Court.
In addition, the proposed budget includes several structural changes for central service department allocations to align with a third-party, independent report commissioned by the city in 2019.
The city is also proposing to issue bonds, in accordance with Public Act 575 of 2018, to fully fund the MERS Pension Plan. Taking advantage of historically low interest rates, the proposed bond sale would effectively fund and close the city pension plan for general employees and lower current expenditures by an estimated $1.1 million in the current year and $68 million over the next 16 years, according to city calculations.
A virtual budget study session is planned for 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday, May 2. Times are subject to deviation. Information on how the public can attend these virtual meetings along with the 2020-2021 budget proposal are available on www.cityofwestland.com
“The city's Finance Team has worked very hard on this year's budget proposal,” commented Wild. “This proposed conservative budget allows for continued improvements to the city's infrastructure, increases public safety and makes significant progress towards lowering unfunded pension and retiree healthcare obligation.”
