Detroit expects to emerge soon from three years of state supervision of its post-bankruptcy finances after the city ended its last fiscal year with a budget surplus, a city official said yesterday, Reuters reported. The city ended what was then the biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy in December 2014 after shedding about $7 billion of its $18 billion of debt and obligations. One element of the city’s federal court-approved bankruptcy exit plan was the creation of a state oversight board. John Hill, Detroit’s chief financial officer, said a comprehensive annual financial report for fiscal 2017 released on Wednesday “shows improvements across the board in the city’s financial health.” The annual audit’s findings that the city ended the fiscal year on June 30 with a $53.8 million operating surplus in its $1.3 billion general fund budget mark a third balanced budget in a row. That milestone allows a financial review commission created by the state of Michigan to end its monthly oversight of Detroit’s budget and contracts, according to Hill.
