Steve Watson

Steve has two decades of experience in state and local government, advising public officials, balancing budgets, and solving problems through times of fiscal stress, recovery, and growth. As Budget Director & Deputy CFO for the City of Detroit, he led advances in data-driven financial planning and analysis following the largest municipal bankruptcy in history. He helped rebuild the City’s finance team and reinvent how it budgets with multi-year forecasts and strategies.

Steve received widespread recognition designing and implementing an innovative long-range financial strategy for Detroit’s “pension cliff” from the bankruptcy restructuring plan, resulting in release from State oversight, return to investment grade credit, and resumption of annual pension contributions in 2024. He established an ongoing Detroit economic analysis partnership with Michigan’s public universities to inform revenue forecasts and economic policy, bringing new depth and analytical rigor to the City’s revenue estimating process. He advised Detroit on the State of Michigan’s internet gaming and sports betting legislation, yielding $100 million in new annual revenue for the city. He helped lead the city’s financial response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including revenue loss estimates and budget solutions to close the gap.

Earlier in his career, Steve served as a State Budget Analyst and later Manager for the New Jersey Office of Management Budget, providing state leaders with effective budget and program analysis from the Great Recession through recovery. He left New Jersey in 2015 to return home to Michigan and serve as the inaugural staff for the Detroit Financial Review Commission, the oversight board established after the city’s bankruptcy and the school district’s restructuring.

He holds an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a BA, with Distinction, from the University of Michigan. He grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and lives in Detroit.