Posted on 04/04/2012 2:50:03 PM PDT by Signalman
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- It's crunch time for Detroit.
City and state officials are facing a Thursday deadline to save the city from the threat of looming financial insolvency or a takeover of city government by Michigan.
Fierce opposition from unions -- in a city that remains a bastion of labor power -- has so far stymied efforts to pass a rescue package.
A deal backed by Mayor Dave Bing and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, would grant the city the power to void contracts and slash costs but not provide state funding or loans to bail the city out of its financial problems.
Without city council agreement on that deal, Snyder can by law appoint an "emergency manager" who will assume the powers of the mayor and council to run day-to-day operations. He has until Thursday to take such action.
The city council is under pressure from the public and city unions to reject the deal with the state. At the same time, it would lose its powers if Snyder goes ahead and names an emergency manager.
The council was meeting again Wednesday. Earlier in the week, the council moved to double the city's corporate income tax to 2% as a way to raise badly-needed revenue.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
(Devils Night comes early this year?)
Good Lord, paying someone to take it would be a moneymaker in the long run as long as the unions were part of the package when the deal was made.
An emergency manager will toss out union contracts and fire union members.
If Dave Bing were in better health I would just make him emergency manager and avoid most of the fight. He’s a democrat but has shown that he’s not afraid of taking on the unions.
Didn’t know Bing was in bad health. Too bad, he seems to care about Detroit, unlike any other Mayor in my lifetime, and that’s going back half a century. Had some good cousins who grew up there, my Uncle was a very successful businessman, but they moved the business to Florida in the 70’s when it was clear white boys weren’t welcome in Detroit any more.
“If Dave Bing were in better health I would just make him emergency manager and avoid most of the fight. Hes a democrat but has shown that hes not afraid of taking on the unions.”
That poor b&&$^$%^. He really tried, at an age where he could have retired to a very happy and comfortable life. He had his heart in the right place, but the problems were insurmountable.
Another liberal hell-hole goes belly up.
No offense, Michiganers(?)
Detroit fell into the classic lobsters in a pot scenario. Anytime someone tried to do anything for the city, they were pulled back down by people like the “beautiful Mrs. Conyers” who complained about the race of companies getting contracts.
As a former citizen of the City of Detroit, I say let the feral monkeys burn the city down if that is their quest. This time no State or Federal money to rebuild, or should I say attempt to rebuild. People will move away from the ruins and in fifty years they can start to build the city from the ruins and open fields, like they did in 1805.
City of Detroit’s motto “Speramus Meliora and Resurget Cineribus”, meaning “We hope for better things” and “It will rise from the ashes,”
Detroit Denby, Class of 1967
OBAMA is a THUG
“the council moved to double the city’s corporate income tax to 2%”
If you want less of something, tax it.
Michigan and Detroit are actually "leading edge" state and city government in terms of the positive changes that can come with the replacement of government by Progressives with more conservative leadership at the state level. Michigan just gained a Republican Governor (Snyder) and Republican Senate & House. And within the city councils of cities (I've read that the most recent Detroit City Council members are more Conservative, as is the Mayor). What we are witnessing in Detroit right now is the leading edge of the failure of the Progressive era. We should applaud it and publicize it for what it is; a model of things to come throughout the country and at the Federal level.
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