Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin presented a record $591 million proposed budget for the coming year to the City Council this morning, which includes an increase in police funding and money for a potential police ‘czar’ to oversee public safety.

That’s up from the $582 million budget last year for the city.

Woodin said the anti-crime strategy under new Police Chief Michael Pickett has been working.

“Homicides are down; police recruitment is up,” Woodfin said. “Both those things needed to happen at a very accelerated rate, and they’re happening.”

The 2025-2026 fiscal year will begin on July 1. The current fiscal year ends June 30.

The police budget has increased from $109 million in the 2024 fiscal year to more than $128 million, which includes increases in funding for police recruitment and retention after a record year for homicides in 2024.

“Public safety has been and will continue to be on all of our minds,” Woodfin said. “As much as we appreciate the decrease in homicides, as much as we appreciate the increase in officer recruitment and retention efforts, I think it’s important that we continue to support a holistic approach to violence reduction that’s in the form of enforcement via the Birmingham Police Department, as well as our other reduction initiatives such as prevention and re-entry efforts.”

The personnel budget includes money for recommendations in the Crime Commission report released this year, including funding for a police ‘czar,’ or public safety commissioner, Woodfin said.

The 2025-2026 fiscal year budget includes $141 million in spending of federal funds that came through the American Rescue Plan Act. Those pandemic recovery funds have to be spent by next year.

“The focus has been, always will be, as long as I’m in this seat, neighborhood revitalization,” Woodfin said.

The proposed budget includes $21.8 million for revitalization efforts, up $750,000.

That includes $15 million for street paving, $3 million for weed abatement, $2 million for demolition of blight, $1 million for sidewalks, $500,000 for traffic calming and $300,000 for recycling.

Woodfin said that in light of the impact of tariffs and potential recession, the city was careful in projecting revenue for the next fiscal year.

“We’ve been very conservative,” Woodfin said.

For example, the city did not project potential revenue from lodging and sales taxes from the new Coca-Cola Amphitheater that opens in June.

“We feel very confident in that,” he said.