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As posted here a few months ago Michigan passed a law that strengthened it's ability to take over local governments and schools that are failing. Controversial, yes, but also necessary when their leaderships are failing in their responsibilities.
So far it's use has been limited to a couple small cities and a few school districts, the largest being Detroit Public Schools - a disaster if ever there was one. Now the entire Detroit government looks to be failing, putting the State in the position of taking over the largest city in Michigan.
The reasons are many, but let's start with an inability to downsize a government built for a city of 2 million in the 1950's to one suited for the current population of ~720,000. Obviously the current tax base is going to be insufficient, but for political and union reasons reality hasn't set in.
That brings on today's editorial in The Detroit News -
So far it's use has been limited to a couple small cities and a few school districts, the largest being Detroit Public Schools - a disaster if ever there was one. Now the entire Detroit government looks to be failing, putting the State in the position of taking over the largest city in Michigan.
The reasons are many, but let's start with an inability to downsize a government built for a city of 2 million in the 1950's to one suited for the current population of ~720,000. Obviously the current tax base is going to be insufficient, but for political and union reasons reality hasn't set in.
That brings on today's editorial in The Detroit News -
Column: Is Detroit in its end times?
Nolan Finley
November 20, 2011
My grandmother used to talk about the end times, and would scour current events and the weather for evidence of the Biblical signs foretelling the Earth's final days.
I find myself doing the same thing with the city of Detroit.
Last week, Mayor Dave Bing provided a clear signal of the city's coming apocalypse. Faced with an existential moment demanding life-or-death decision making, the mayor instead stalled for time.
Detroit is out of time, and Bing's failure to act decisively to turn back the cash flow crisis makes it inevitable that an emergency manager will be appointed by the state to make the hard decisions and common sense reforms that should have been made decades ago.
It won't be pretty. And it may not save the city.
Bing won't slash the 2,300 employees, including 800 police and firefighters, that need to go now to replenish the city's coffers because he's rightly fearful that the impact on services and safety will accelerate the exodus from Detroit. His counter is to promise 1,000 layoffs soon. Not enough. The emergency manager will mail far more pink slips.
Bing is hoping he can avoid mass privatization of city services, including the bus system, by bringing in outside managers to make them more efficient. It's too late for that. The emergency manager will outsource any service that can be provided cheaper by someone else, and buses likely will go.
Bing hasn't put any of the city's "jewels" on the auction block. The emergency manager will hold a fire sale. Say goodbye to City Airport, the city's power plant, and anything else that isn't nailed down. Selling assets to clean up the balance sheet will be Job One.
Bing has been overly patient with the city's unions, hoping they'll ultimately come to Jesus on giving concessions on health care, pensions and pay. They won't. The emergency manager will tip over the bargaining table and achieve those savings with the stroke of a pen.
The emergency manager will save the city from bankruptcy, for a moment. But because of decades of denial, it will be salvation by fire.
There will be fewer amenities, fewer cops on the street, fewer reasons to live in the city. The abundance and affordability of suburban homes will be hard to resist. Those remaining in the city will fight changes every step of the way, particularly because it will be an "outsider" ordering them.
Despite a new burst of youthful energy and enthusiasm for Detroit, no one can look out and see a point at which property values, income tax revenues and population stop declining.
The manager can cut costs and spending, but there's little that can be done to stabilize revenue.
So the cutting will continue.
It will be like chasing water down the drain.
Maybe nothing the mayor could have said or done last week would have altered the city's course. But because he said and did nothing, Detroit's fate seems tragically sealed.
Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. His column runs on Sunday and Thursday.
Nolan Finley
November 20, 2011
My grandmother used to talk about the end times, and would scour current events and the weather for evidence of the Biblical signs foretelling the Earth's final days.
I find myself doing the same thing with the city of Detroit.
Last week, Mayor Dave Bing provided a clear signal of the city's coming apocalypse. Faced with an existential moment demanding life-or-death decision making, the mayor instead stalled for time.
Detroit is out of time, and Bing's failure to act decisively to turn back the cash flow crisis makes it inevitable that an emergency manager will be appointed by the state to make the hard decisions and common sense reforms that should have been made decades ago.
It won't be pretty. And it may not save the city.
Bing won't slash the 2,300 employees, including 800 police and firefighters, that need to go now to replenish the city's coffers because he's rightly fearful that the impact on services and safety will accelerate the exodus from Detroit. His counter is to promise 1,000 layoffs soon. Not enough. The emergency manager will mail far more pink slips.
Bing is hoping he can avoid mass privatization of city services, including the bus system, by bringing in outside managers to make them more efficient. It's too late for that. The emergency manager will outsource any service that can be provided cheaper by someone else, and buses likely will go.
Bing hasn't put any of the city's "jewels" on the auction block. The emergency manager will hold a fire sale. Say goodbye to City Airport, the city's power plant, and anything else that isn't nailed down. Selling assets to clean up the balance sheet will be Job One.
Bing has been overly patient with the city's unions, hoping they'll ultimately come to Jesus on giving concessions on health care, pensions and pay. They won't. The emergency manager will tip over the bargaining table and achieve those savings with the stroke of a pen.
The emergency manager will save the city from bankruptcy, for a moment. But because of decades of denial, it will be salvation by fire.
There will be fewer amenities, fewer cops on the street, fewer reasons to live in the city. The abundance and affordability of suburban homes will be hard to resist. Those remaining in the city will fight changes every step of the way, particularly because it will be an "outsider" ordering them.
Despite a new burst of youthful energy and enthusiasm for Detroit, no one can look out and see a point at which property values, income tax revenues and population stop declining.
The manager can cut costs and spending, but there's little that can be done to stabilize revenue.
So the cutting will continue.
It will be like chasing water down the drain.
Maybe nothing the mayor could have said or done last week would have altered the city's course. But because he said and did nothing, Detroit's fate seems tragically sealed.
Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. His column runs on Sunday and Thursday.