Update 3/27:
This year, Mayor Sheffield is proposing a $29 million total budget increase for DDOT, following up on last year’s $30 million boost. This won’t get us all the way to “doubling DDOT” this year, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. At first, we were confused by the fact that the budget proposes decreasing the contribution it makes to DDOT from the City’s General Fund. The math didn’t seem to add up. But it turns out the City is tapping a new source of funding for the first time: it’s proposing to shift a portion of its state road dollars towards DDOT transit service.
Combined with the additional state transit dollars we won from Lansing last year, this more than makes up for the decrease in General Fund support – yielding a net total of $29 million . We believe this major boost in funding is worthy of our support. (It’s also the kind of change we need at the state level, where transit investment has typically been treated as an afterthought to highway funding.)
But we also need to remind City Council that the work doesn’t stop here. We need to keep our eyes on the prize – doubling DDOT by 2030 – and ensure we keep ramping up funding for DDOT in the years to come. And ultimately, we won’t be satisfied until the funding results in more reliable, more frequent service on the ground.
Join us Monday, March 30th at 4pm at the Spirit of Detroit Plaza for a ‘Double DDOT’ rally! The Plaza is located in front of Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (CAYMAC) (2 Woodward Ave, Detroit MI), on Woodward between Larned and Jefferson. At 5pm, the budget hearing will begin, and we’ll head up to the 13th floor of CAYMAC to give public comment during the hearing.
Questions? Email [email protected]. We’ll see you there!
Original Post:
The City of Detroit’s budget hearings are coming up, and once again, TRU and a broad coalition of over a dozen allied organizations are calling on the Mayor and City Council to boost funding for Detroit Department of Transportation bus service. (Read our letter to the Mayor below.)
Unfortunately, two years after the DDOT Reimagined plan was released to the public, progress towards the goal of doubling DDOT service has stalled. Detroit still has less bus service than we had pre-pandemic. The new Mayor and Council must make DDOT a priority in the budget and get us back on track to #DoubleDDOT by 2030.
The Mayor will present her budget proposal to City Council on Monday, March 9. City Council then holds a series of hearings on the budgets proposed for various departments:
- A hearing on DDOT’s budget is set for Monday, March 16, at 3 pm.
- Council will hold an evening public hearing on the budget from 5-7 pm on Monday, March 30.
Please mark your calendars and come make a brief comment in support of transit expansion at either or both of those dates; we’ll want to have as many people as possible turn out for public comment.
Please also tell the Mayor and City Council you support more transit funding!