Detroit Council Has '50 Suggestions' To Cut The Budget

DETROIT (WWJ) - The Detroit City Council continues to mull over deep budget cutting options, just a day ahead of a deadline to submit a deficit reduction plan to a state review team looking into the city's troubled finances.

Reportedly, council members believe that a plan put forth by Mayor Dave Bing, including a proposed 1,000 employee layoffs, doesn't go far enough.

Tuesday, City Council President Charles Pugh said the next step is a meeting with the mayor.

"It's time for us to sit down and synthesize these plans, to look at our suggestions," said Pugh. "And, honestly, the mayor's office ... they asked us for five, but, you know, we have ... fifty suggestions, so we cannot boil them down to five."

"We can't boil them down to five. What we wanna do is sit down and go through all of them, and go through all of theirs, and look at what's realistic with theirs -- that we'll find immediate cost savings -- and what's realistic with ours," he said.

The council was expect to vote Friday on its own deficit elimination plan if the meeting with Mayor Bing fails to produce a consensus plan.

The city is struggling to balance toe budget as leaders try to stave off the possible appointment of an emergency manager by Gov. Rick Snyder.