Flint, MI– After the Flint City Council missed the deadline to adopt a city budget, Mayor Sheldon Neeley issued a statement about preparing for a possible government shutdown.
The City’s current budget expires on June 30, and the City’s spending authority ends after that date. The deadline for the council to adopt a budget, as outlined by the City’s Charter, was June 7.
According to a press release from the City issued on June 11, without a budget, Flint would be forced to go into a city government shutdown which could result in mass layoffs.
“This unprecedented failure to pass a budget is putting hundreds of City of Flint employees’ livelihoods in jeopardy. Our team, their families and our community deserve better than the ongoing petty politics and continuous dysfunction that is being portrayed by some City Council members,” Neeley said in the release. “We hope and pray that a budget is passed, but, at this point, the City must begin preparing for a potential shutdown in case a majority of the Council continues to fail to uphold their oaths of office and to fail to do their jobs.”
The council met for a special meeting on June 7 for the sole purpose of adopting the city budget, but over the course of nine hours the council could not reach a compromise to approve the budget as is, or approve amendments to the budget.
Two days later, the council met for another special meeting to adopt the budget, but technicalities with voting, a “reconsideration,” and an “add-on resolution,” kept the council from being able to vote to adopt the budget.
The council is meeting on June 14, for their regularly scheduled council meeting.