Since 2012 the City of Livonia has held pre-budget meetings to provide Council members an opportunity to share their priorities with the Mayor’s office before a budget is drafted and presented to Council in September.

Finance Director Debra Lichtenberg noted key focuses in this year’s budget – impact of tariffs, increase in costs, and deferred maintenance. The administration will work to maintain services by planning for the fiscal impact of collective bargaining agreements (this will be the first full year of the new fire contract and the general staff contract will be negotiated next year), leveraging technology to create efficiencies and seek grant funding opportunities

Property taxes increased 4% ($1.7M) but below the projected 6%. The tax administration fee and state shared revenue remain neutral and interest income and other revenue is down $515k. This creates a net positive of $1.6M.

Last year $4.3M was requested by departments from the general fund and $1.6M (36%) of requests were funded. Across the board 41% of budget requests were approved.

City Council made the following budget request:

• $2.4M from retiree savings put in the Capital Improvement Fund and updated balance sheet
• Remove the tax administration fee
• Updated financials for Senior Center and Court House
• Support to Ordinance Dept to increase enforcement
• Usage numbers for both Bennett and Sandburg libraries
• Fill the Capital Improvement Manager position and money budgeted so that this role can have funds to address the most critical building needs
• Accounting on how much was spent on the bond proposal and confirmation that all contracts were stopped
• Follow-up a report and recommendation to update the Ordinance Dept. fee schedule to be more aggressive and provide for a compounded annual rate.
• Wording for on-going millages
• Millage renewal dates for public safety and seniors
• Updated list of land owned by the city and its utilization
• Cuts to be made in various city departments
• Needs assessment timeline + 5 year capital plan
• Noble Building – including a memo with financials related to the building – recent investments, building maintenance costs when open, current preservation costs, most recent estimates for rehabilitation
• Creation of a Property maintenance position for Inspection Department
• City-wide Salary survey
• More staff for LFD included in operating millage
• Report on grants applied for and received
• Update on PRDA
• Update on the city’s car policy
• Explore selling city buildings
• Ensuring the city has funds to address obligations to staff and retirees
• Moving forward with the library’s deferred plans – new roof, bathroom conversion and elevators
• Hillcrest Park improvement (on the Parks and Rec park schedule
• Creation of an Economic Development Position that could be shared part-time with PRDA.
• Explore the possibility of college partnerships for work-study program