Detroit — The city of Detroit ended the 2016 fiscal year with a $63 million surplus, marking its second consecutive balanced budget out of bankruptcy, an achievement officials hope will earn it better standing in the bond markets and a path out of financial oversight.
The city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, publicly released Wednesday, also shows that for the first time in more than a decade, the city didn’t have any costs scrutinized for its federal grant use. The city filed the annual review of its finances with the state Treasury Department on Tuesday.
Detroit Chief Financial Officer John Hill said the fiscal surplus for 2016 was about $22 million higher than the city projected, which he attributes to improved financial controls, stronger-than-anticipated revenues and lower costs due to unfilled vacancies.
“We are operating in a very fiscally responsible way that we believe will have a lot of positive implications on the future,” Hill told The News.
The city must have three consecutive years of deficit-free budgets to exit oversight by the Financial Review Commission under terms of Detroit’s exit from municipal bankruptcy protection in 2014.
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http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/05/31/detroit-surplus/102332670/Waddaya know. Dems
can stick to a budget if they are threatened enough.
