Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is upset about a possible takeover by the state. Bing says "We know what needs to be done, and we stand ready to do it."
I have a simple suggestion for Bing don't "stand ready to do it, just do it". Indeed he has had years to "just do it" yet hasn't done it.
Please consider Detroit in a hostile takeover bid?
The idea is extreme, even in a city accustomed to fighting for survival: Should the state of Michigan step in to run Detroit?
The governor has taken steps in that direction, proposing an unprecedented move that could give an appointed manager virtually unchecked power to gut union contracts, cut employee health insurance and slash services. But city leaders bristle at the notion. Said the mayor: "This is our city. Detroit needs to be run by Detroiters."
If it happens, Detroit would be the largest American city ever taken over by a state. Michigan has seized control of smaller struggling cities, but until now Detroit was always off-limits.
That changed this week, when Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's administration said it would begin a review of Detroit's precarious finances. If the governor concludes that the city's economic situation constitutes an emergency, he could dispatch a manager who could push the mayor and city council to the sidelines.
Democratic Mayor Dave Bing says Detroit doesn't need the help. He insists the city is reducing a $150 million budget deficit and easing cash-flow problems on its own.
"We know what needs to be done, and we stand ready to do it," an indignant Bing said.
"It terms of a city, I think Detroit stands alone," said Michael LaFaive, director of fiscal policy at Michigan's Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonpartisan group that espouses free markets.
An emergency financial manager would have the power to privatize utility departments, as well as the bus system and other agencies. A manager also could sell off city-owned parking lots and even Belle Isle, Detroit's popular island park, LaFaive said.
In a 2001 report, LaFaive wrote about Detroit's burgeoning fiscal problems and recommended privatization, contracting out services and ways to generate revenue.
"I think they knew what the recommendations were, but their hands were tied a bit by recalcitrant employee unions," LaFaive said. "Those kinds of bold reforms would be difficult to get over with the city council or voters, in general."
Last month, Bing declared the city government "broken" and said the public's checkbook would be short by $45 million next year unless Detroit s