Painting by numbers: the 2012-13 Ann Arbor city budget in pictures
City Administrator Steve Powers presented his recommended 2012-13 budget to the Ann Arbor City Council Monday night.
From here, it's up to council members to decide by the end of May whether to go with the administrator's suggestions or tweak the budget to make it their own.
And they'll be asking for public input.
Because a picture speaks a thousand words, here's a series of screenshots from the proposed budget that help make it easier to understand. Give these graphs a look and share your thoughts on the budget in the comments section below.
- For more detail, download the full 343-page budget book here.
Note: Where it highlights a loss of 18 full-time employees in the police department, that's due to the recent outsourcing of dispatch operations to the county. Powers actually is recommending avoiding further layoffs and proposes additional patrol staffing.
Previous story: Ann Arbor budget plan increases staffing in police, holds line on fire
Comments
dotdash
Mon, May 7, 2012 : 2:31 p.m.
I appreciate the graphs. I do notice that of the 52% that goes to education, only 26% (half) goes to the AAPS. Too bad.
Jarrod Van Kirk
Wed, Apr 18, 2012 : 2:54 p.m.
Thank you for posting this. I would like to see something similar for Pittsfield Twp. and the city of Ypsilanti.
YpsiVeteran
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 6:21 p.m.
http://www.cityofypsilanti.com/Government/Departments/FinancialServices/Accounting/BudgetHistory
Linda Peck
Wed, Apr 18, 2012 : 1:33 p.m.
The budget report is very well presented. Thank you for publishing this and to Steve Powers. I notice there is over 33 M for retirement system. I would like to see this eliminated and would encourage city employees to pay for their own retirement, as well as pay into FICA as we are all required to do. By doing this, we will support social security for the good of all of the people. Otherwise, the budget looks reasonable to this interested lay person.
YpsiVeteran
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 6:18 p.m.
It's up to the city, not police and fire employees, whether or not employees pay into social security. Units of government have a choice, and that's what A2 picked. Municipalities were allowed to offer pensions to fire and police employees, which relieved the municipalities from the obligation of paying the employer's portion into social security for those employees.
5c0++ H4d13y
Wed, Apr 18, 2012 : 1:58 p.m.
You wont get many people to take a job at the city if there is no retirement of any kind. Most companies have some kind of 401k if they don't have a pension.
et-tu-brute
Wed, Apr 18, 2012 : 12:11 p.m.
Nice article Ryan. Easy to briefly see and follow. I will downlaod the 343 page budget, but this was nice to go through. From the looks of things, I think Mr. Powers is on the right track. Nice job to him as well.