MARQUETTE, MI— The Marquette City Commission Monday night unanimously approved the Fiscal Year 2023 budget amounting to just over $24.1 million.
Revenues equal expenditures, but officials are keeping an eye on overtime. The new fiscal year starts October 1.
During the meeting’s public comment periods several people said it’s a constant struggle to find childcare, and some parents can’t work at all because there’s no one to look after their kids.
Commissioner Evan Bonsall said just $5,000 would train 12 child development associate students. He said some money might be found in the budget to address the urgency of the situation.
“I’m not making an amendment or proposal right now, but I think there is a little bit of wiggle room to do at least something nominal on childcare this year. Five thousand dollars is a very small amount of money; I know we’re operating within very tight constraints, but I also think it is important, given the urgency of this problem, for the City to have some skin in the game.”
Commissioner Fred Stonehouse said officials have to seek money where the money is.
“Which right now is the County Board, with 13 million dollars. It’s expendable money right now, from ARPA [American Rescue Plan Act]. They can provide it. It’s also the State of Michigan. I think there was an article in the Free Press a couple days ago that talked about how the legislators had carved up 1 billion dollars of ARPA money for pet projects.”
Commissioner Sally Davis said a lot of important things are vying for the budget’s attention right now.
“You know, it’s not the budget that any of us had hoped for. I’d love to say that we have money for childcare, but we’ve got streets and capital improvements are at their basic minimal and we raised taxes, we raised fees, we cut services, and we still need to tap our reserves.”
City Mayor Jenna Smith said a priority for the Commission in the coming fiscal year is to update the City of Marquette’s Master Plan. She said she’s looking forward to addressing the childcare shortage during that process.
Also Monday night, the Commission extended City Manager Karen Kovax’s contract by two years.
