The Budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee met on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at approximately 1:10 p.m. (public comment closed at 1:10 p.m.) during the budget season, which limited the committee to one hour. The committee approved the previous meeting’s minutes, heard public comment from four speakers, and considered unfinished business on state revenue sharing resolutions and an ARPA audit. New business included the mayor’s proposed FY 2026‑2027 budget, a neighborhood enterprise zone (NEZ) certificate application for a modular home in West Village, and several memoranda related to property tax relief and budget follow‑ups. All agenda items were disposed of by motions, with most brought back for future discussion or approval.
Good afternoon. I'd like to call the budget finance and audit standard committee meeting of Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 to order. Will the clerk please call the roll? Good afternoon. Councilmember Daniel McCampbell. Present. Councilmember Letitia Johnson. Present. Councilmember Mary Waters. Present. Mr. Chair, there's a quorum. Thank you so much. I'm going to move us on to approval of the minutes. I believe let me just make sure. Yep. Um, folks should have received the minutes from our last meeting. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. All right. There's been a motion still no objections. The minutes shall stand approved. That'll move us on to chair remarks. Um, just will say please do continue to engage around the various budget hearings that we will continue throughout the month of March and attend the public hearing as well at the end of the month. That's it for my uh chair remarks. We'll now move on to public comment. We'll open public comment recurs for public comment. We'll excuse me. We'll close at one ten p.m. Please limit your remarks to one minute. We'll start with those in the room, and for those who are participating remotely, please use the raise hand feature and you'll be called in order. Do we have any requests for public comment in the room? Seeing none, that'll move us on to Zoom. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. We have six hands raised for public comment. Uh as of right now, our first speaker is Owner Papa. Good afternoon. Um, you have one minute for public comment. Ms. Hughes, if you can hear us, you have one minute. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm sorry you dropped us down to uh one minute. Good uh good afternoon. Um Detroit has a three billion dollar budget. And I I really believe that the that the citizens, the legacy citizens, are being cheated out of most of their federal dollars that come back to the city. Uh I can't see a dime of my federal dollars coming back to me. Uh my surplus tax dollars that which could build a rec center are being given to uh corporate America to fill their uh income shortfall for all of the uh legislation that you all have implemented and ordinances to um embellish these people. Uh Miss Varner ought to get her sixteen hundred dollars for her um whatever she has to pay to beautify her neighborhood when we have five dot two, which is on the agenda, which is you know it's really strange how that money got spent, but I'm pretty sure there should be ARPA money for her to have for and in any other block club.