MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – We have new details on Marquette’s fiscal future, and officials say things are looking up.
On August 22, the Marquette City Commission had their first reading of the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025. During that special meeting, members of the commission were given some good news, as this is the first year in 4 that a balanced budget has been submitted. Marquette City Manager, Karen Kovacs says this budget is the result of a lot of hard work and hard choices.
“The biggest takeaway, or I guess, an announcement, from that, was, we are presenting a balanced budget, and that has been some major work in the process to get to that point,” said Kovacs.
The city has, in the past, used bonds as a way to fund essential projects adding to a higher overall debt that the city was facing. A balanced budget is a step in the right direction
“In previous years, we had been issuing bonds in order to complete some projects, and we are trying to go to a model of paying down that debt and also starting to build up reserves and to pay for those directly, instead of having to bond, which right now is a little bit more costly to do,” said Kovacs.
Marquette’s Downtown Development Authority will see this budget as a way to get more projects done.
“It means that the city is able to start working on some of those deferred projects that you know they want to do, but they haven’t really been able to do so, that they can start looking at those. And that’s really good for us, because a lot of those projects do affect us.” Said Lasse-McKinney.
The Marquette City Commission will hold a public hearing on the budget on Monday, September 9th. The commission is expected vote on the proposed budget following that hearing.
