DETROIT — Mayor Mike Duggan, Governor Rick Snyder, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and Councilman Gabe Leland discussed Detroit’s exit from bankruptcy Wednesday morning during a press conference. 

Orr submitted his resignation to Snyder earlier this week. In July 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy. During that period paychecks for some city employees were bouncing. 

Orr said the city is starting 2015 with a deficit of $58 million, but will have a fund surplus of $100 million by the end of the year. The city’s debt was projected at $18 billion when the city first filed for bankruptcy. 

 “I’m very proud of where we are coming out of this process,” Snyder said. “Detroit is a far better place then it was 18 months ago.” 

Snyder said that while Detroit’s Midtown and Downtown are coming back, he wants to see what he can do to make Detroit neighborhoods better for residents. 

Duggan acknowledged that the city still has a lot of tough challenges to address. 

“It is time to go back to the challenging job of making the city work,” he said. He thanked Detroit’s bankruptcy judge, organizations that contributed to the grand bargain and mediators in the bankruptcy. 

Leland said Detroit is better off today than it was when the city first filed for bankruptcy. 

For his part, Orr said it was time for him to sit back and “return the city to the regular order.”