TROY — The Troy City Council unanimously approved the city’s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which focuses on infrastructure, public health, public safety and amenities.

“This budget is balanced and meets all the requirements set forth by the state of Michigan and this city,” Troy Chief Financial Officer Rob Maleszyk said.

Previously, the budget was discussed during a special study meeting on April 14 and, after further consideration, was presented to the city council during their meeting on May 5 for adoption.

“I was very humbled by your actions and the amount of homework that this council put forth on that 376-page document as it is truly our guiding principle for the year,” Maleszyk said.

The budget shows a total of $196.8 million between all funds, with $77,978,331 for the general fund. Here’s a breakdown of the general fund for different areas of the city:

• The general government category funding totals $12,749,370

• Public safety funding totals $45,657,708 with $34,986,190 for police, $7,674,514 for fire and $2,997,004 for building inspection

• Public works came in at $2,677,666 with $1,988,976 for streets/drains and $688,690 for transportation

• The total funding for community development is $5,401,381

• Recreation and culture totals $11,481,078 with $4,277,500 for parks, $6,614,838 for recreation, $225,300 for the nature center and $363,440 for the museum/historic village

• The operating transfers out category totals $11,128

“Our budget’s foundation was three-fold, three strategies,” Maleszyk said. “Number 1: preserve public health, safety, and welfare. Number 2: focus on core facilities and infrastructure, including major and local streets. And thirdly, provide world class, quality of life amenities. We believe these strategies are accomplished while maintaining one of the lowest millage rates in the state at 9.7919 mills.

. . .The low millage rate is possible by our continued growth in taxable value of over 5% this year, with an overall value of $6.9 billion dollars.”

The capital project fund has a total of $20,196,382 for revenues, transfers and appropriations, with a tax rate of 1.1352 mills and expenditures listed at $20,196,382.

The refuse fund has a total of $7,249,570 for expenditures as well as revenues, transfers and appropriations. Its proposed tax rate is 1.0900 mills.

The library fund shows the total of expenditures, revenues, transfers and appropriations listed at $7,041,440. It has a proposed tax rate of 1.0667 mills.

Other budgets items listed include:

• Major road fund with $8,243,640 for revenues, transfer and appropriations as well as expenditures

• Local road fund expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations listed at $5,526,046

• Transit center category is set at $161,658 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• Drug forfeiture fund at $628,221 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• Community Development Block Grant fund expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations listed at $186,848

• The cemetery fund is listed at $1,335 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• The Sanctuary Lake Golf Course fund listed at $3,258,239 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• The Sylvan Glen Golf Course fund at $1,585,042 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• The sanitary sewer fund is set at $20,867,867 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• The water fund is listed at $23,450,572 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• Building operations listed at $1,822,250 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• Fleet maintenance fund at $8,220,660 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• Information technology listed at $2,797,500 for revenues, transfer, and appropriations and expenditures

• Unemployment insurance fund at $3,952 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• Worker’s compensation fund at $873,600 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

• Compensated absences fund listed at $5,800,000 for expenditures, revenues, transfer and appropriations

“On the expenditure side, we continue to monitor our expenditures with strict accounting principles to ensure we are good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars,” Maleszyk said.

During the meeting, city council members further discussed the attributes of the 2025-26 budget.

“For me, what this budget meant to me was it really hit home ‘yes, we are in a great financial position as a city but we have constraints’ and really for the first time it became so clear to me, as we analyzed it as a council, where those constraints exist . . .,” Council member Rebecca Chamberlain-Creanga said.

“We do have one of the lowest millage rates in probably the entire state and definitely the lowest millage rates in . . . Oakland County,” Council member Hirak Chanda said. “With that, we are doing a lot of good things. Our priorities, as always, (have) been public safety. I believe, in this budget, we increased police funding by 5.8%, fire by 8.5%, which is also accounting for EMS which we expect to spend more money on that to improve our response time.”

“Obviously, it’s been talked about that our city’s priorities and our resident’s priorities are always public safety, infrastructure, parks and recreation,” Mayor Ethan Baker said. “I mean those are the core things we’re responsible for providing as a city government and this budget, like our previous budgets, puts the focus there and that’s always first standard . . . A little bit of conversation was had tonight about the future and the capital needs, and we’ll continue to have those conversations.

This budget, while very healthy from an operational standpoint, if given a close eye you’ll see there’s not a lot of wiggle room for big capital projects. In fact, there’s no wiggle room for big capital projects. We take on capital projects that are absolutely necessary in the moment in our annual budget but without additional funds, some of the bigger projects aren’t going to happen.”

For more information, visit troymi.gov.