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CENTER LINE — The Center Line City Council unanimously approved the city’s 2026-27 budget and a new public safety assessment June 1, a move officials say is necessary to maintain police and fire services amid rising costs and a growing deficit.
The budget includes a 3.4 mill citywide special assessment dedicated to public safety. City officials said the assessment will help offset increasing expenses that aren’t funded by the city’s general fund alone.
In 2010, a public safety millage was first approved by voters, and it was renewed in 2020. However, revenue generated by that millage has not kept pace with rising costs.
The city’s general fund has increasingly supplemented police and fire operations over the past decade. However, according to information presented during the meeting, that support has grown from approximately $710,000 in the 2011-12 fiscal year to more than $2 million annually in recent years.
Center Line Mayor Robert Binson said the city has continued to absorb those costs for years without seeking additional revenue.
“We still had to pay almost a million dollars to our police and fire to keep them that first year, in order to keep the police and fire department here in Center Line, and it has been going up ever since, but the general fund has been able to handle it,” Binson said.
At this point, he said, the general fund isn’t able to absorb it anymore.
“We’re getting to the point where the general fund cannot handle that, and that’s why we’re looking at this,” he said. “We wouldn’t even be looking at this if we didn’t have to.”
At the June 1 meeting, City Manager Dennis Champine said the assessment would generate approximately $720,000 annually and would be split evenly between summer and winter tax bills. Which, for homeowners, would be based on their property’s taxable values.
Joseph Sobota, the city’s treasurer, said the city has explored multiple options to avoid the increased millage, including reducing expenditures and limiting employee raises.
“I’ve asked my administrative appointed staff to take a pay freeze for this year, and those expenses won’t take out the biggest dent in the structural deficit, but it certainly helps us get where we need to go,” Champine said.
The approved budget does not include raises for nonunion employees, department heads or part-time workers.
Officials also cited inflation, increasing public safety costs and reductions in anticipated state revenue sharing funds as contributing factors.
“For years, we have done everything that we can to try to cut where we could, and to try to make it affordable to be able to keep our police and fire and avoid asking for any special assessment, and we haven’t, and that’s been 10 years that we’ve been doing that, but we’re at the point right now … we can’t do it anymore,” Binson said.
In an interview June 9, Champine said the city remains in solid financial condition despite the budget challenges, noting Center Line has reduced debt over the past decade while also improving pension and retiree benefit funding levels, securing millions of dollars in grants and state and federal funding and pursuing alternative revenue sources.
He added that the administration also reduced departmental spending and trimmed the budget wherever possible before recommending the assessment.
“Our budget was trimmed down to bare bones without cutting services or personnel,” he said.
The budget and special assessment were both approved following two public hearings, during which residents voiced both support and opposition to the proposal. Ultimately, they both resulted in a unanimous 5-0 vote.
The special assessment will be reviewed annually as part of future budget discussions.
