Budget Explorer · City of Detroit

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Detroit, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Jun 30, 2024. City of Detroit's own FY2027 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 620K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$3.22B

$5,193 per resident

Total spending

$3.07B

$4,942 per resident

Spending per resident

$4,942

65th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$2.71B

$4,363 per resident · 58th percentile of 70

Own-source share

61%

11th percentile of 71

Capital share

12%

32nd percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$3.22B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$364M11%
Selective sales taxes$326M10%
Income taxes$384M12%
License & other taxes$44M1%
Federal aid$736M23%
State & local aid$474M15%
Charges & fees$546M17%
Interest, fines, other$195M6%
Utility revenue$152M5%

Own-source share of general revenue 61% · federal aid 24% · property tax is 33% of taxes

Where it goes

$3.07B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

General government$1.12B37%
Public safety$560M18%
Environment & housing$498M16%
Transportation$342M11%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$184M6%
Interest on debt$160M5%
Culture & recreation$141M5%
Health & hospitals$60M2%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
General (unallocable)	General government	$703M	$122M	$826M
Police protection	Public safety	$374M	—	$374M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$291M	$2.5M	$294M
Financial administration	General government	$231M	—	$231M
Transit	Transportation	$160M	$45M	$205M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$91M	$69M	$160M
Fire protection	Public safety	$154M	—	$154M
Highways	Transportation	$61M	$69M	$130M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$128M	—	$128M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$66M	$45M	$112M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$76M	—	$76M
Health	Health & hospitals	$60M	—	$60M
Central staff services	General government	$33M	—	$33M
Protective inspection & regulation	Public safety	$32M	—	$32M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+18% over 2 yrs

$2.74B → $3.22B

Spending

+20% over 2 yrs

$2.56B → $3.07B

Debt outstanding

-4% over 2 yrs

$2.83B → $2.71B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Detroit	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$4,942	$3,741	65th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$5,193	$3,548	71st	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$1,803	$1,328	73rd	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$4,363	$3,865	58th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	61%	81%	11th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	24%	7%	98th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	12%	18%	32nd	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	5%	4%	70th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	0.84×	1.05×	34th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 262163166817 (Detroit City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · FY2027

City of Detroit's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 34 departments.

$3.05B total

Police$466M15%
Sewerage – Retail$452M15%
Debt Service & Legacy Pension$311M10%
Water – Retail$248M8%
Transportation$238M8%
Public Works$211M7%
Non-Departmental$189M6%
Fire$177M6%
General Services$160M5%
Chief Financial Officer$73M2%
Innovation & Technology$64M2%
Health$61M2%
All other (22)$397M13%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 46-46) — all agencies, expenditures across every fund.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
Detroit's open-data budget layers stop at FY2024, so the current year comes from the published book.
Printed to one decimal place in millions, so small agencies are rounded to the nearest $100,000.
Source: FY2027 Final Adopted Budget Book (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Detroit's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Detroit capacity assessment.