Benton Harbor has its first city commission-approved budget in place since 2009 following a Monday meeting. Commissioners took up City Manager Darwin Watson’s proposed 2016-2017 spending plan after having tabled it at their last meeting, and gave it the green light. Watson said the budget includes some new money this year in grants for local improvements, including a reassessment of properties and blight elimination. He says the city is back on firm financial footing, but still “crawling.”
“A lot of the things haven’t really changed, but we’ve gotten to the point where we can do stuff that we need to do,” Watson told WSJM. “We’re going to have some repairs done to city hall. We’re going to have some other stuff that’s done through grants, and that’s pretty much it.”
Watson said the point is that the budget is balanced and puts away a little surplus. The city will take in about $7 million, and spend $6.9 million. Watson said commissioners’ previous concern about using a $300,000 Whirlpool donation to shore up the public safety pension fund has been resolved. Next year, they’ll look at another use for the Whirlpool donation.
