Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

The Brighton City Council, meeting in regular session Tuesday night, unanimously adopted the fiscal 24-25 city budget. Council also approved the tax rate and fee schedule for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1st. No one addressed council on any aspect of the budget at the public hearing which preceded the vote.

"It’s a good budget,” Mayor Pro Tem Jim Bohn told WHMI News after the meeting. He continued, “We’ve made a lot of progress in the last year and have been able to get things accomplished to better serve the residents.”

The overall city budget for next year, based on expected revenues, totals $24.9 million, minus depreciation, which is about the same as the current year ending June 30th. The general fund spending budget amounts to just under $12 million. That’s slightly more than the general fund for the current year, which is $11.6 million. The largest amount is earmarked for the City Police Dept., at $3.8 million, followed by the Dept. of Public Works, at $2.9 million.

The city’s operating millage for the coming year was set at 14.7189 mills, plus a police millage of 0.4981 mills and an economic development millage of 0.08 mills.

City Manger Gretchen Gomolka says the city is being required to enact a Headlee rollback of .9963 - or nearly one mill - due to an increase in property taxes.

The 1978 Headlee Tax Limitation Amendment requires that if local property taxes increase higher than the inflation rate, they must be reduced so that the local government collects the same amount of gross revenue, adjusted for inflation. This follows two straight years in which a Headlee rollback was not required in the city of Brighton.

The result is a total city millage rate of 17.709 for the coming year — a slight increase over the current year due to a voter-approved increase last November in the police millage.

At the meeting council also approved a police millage for the coming year of just under 5 mills, along with a 2.41-mill street millage and an economic development millage of 0.081 mills. Likewise, council approved the 2024-25 city fee schedule.