Detroit officials on Tuesday argued against handing over fiscal control of the city to a state-appointed emergency manager, citing an agreement already in place to repair city finances. Governor's final decision on next step is expected this week.?
City Council representative Edward Keelan speaks at a hearing in the Treasury Department over the appointment of an Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit on Tuesday in Lansing.
Dale G. Young/Detroit News/AP
EnlargeOfficials from the nearly bankrupt city of Detroit made a last-ditch attempt Tuesday to stave off losing control of city finances to a state-appointed emergency manager, arguing that more time is needed for fixes applied as a result of a state-city agreement last summer to show results.
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Their appeal, made at a one-hour hearing in Lansing, Mich., the state capital, is the last step before Gov. Rick Snyder (R) gives final word on whether he will name an emergency financial manager to intervene in Detroit's finances in a bid to cope with its huge debt and continuing deficit. Most city officials have resisted such a draconian step ever since it became clear in late 2011, when Detroit almost did not make its payroll, that the Motor City was in dire straits. Governor Snyder is expected to say later this week what he will do.
If Snyder does appoint an outsider to seize control of the city's finances, Detroit will make history as the largest city in the US to be directly controlled by an emergency financial manager.?
On Tuesday, Detroit finance officers said the consent agreement between the city and the state of Michigan, signed last year, establishes benchmarks for progress and a monitoring process, and that the state should stick with it.
?In my neighborhood, we were taught a deal is a deal ? we have a deal on the table and it?s not over,? said David Whitaker, Detroit?s director of research and analysis.
Earlier this month, the governor declared that the city is in a state of financial emergency, citing findings from a state review team that Detroit has had annual deficits since 2005 that it unsuccessfully sought to fix through long-term borrowing. Not even counting debt repayment, the city?s deficit for the fiscal year ending in June is set to total $937 million. The review team also said the city has amassed $14.9 billion in long-term debt, primarily from unfunded pension and employee retirement benefits including health care.
Detroit officials do not deny that a crisis is at hand. But they do contest the report?s conclusion that Detroit has not shown it has a plan to return to financial solvency. Mayor Dave Bing and City Councilman Gary Brown are the only city officials who say they agree with the report?s recommendation for an emergency financial manager to intervene.
After Tuesday's hearing, Mayor Bing said in a statement that he sympathizes with the City Council's antipathy toward a state takeover, but "did not agree" with its decision to appeal the review team's finding. "I do not believe it will change the governor's decision to appoint an emergency financial manager," he said.
Tuesday's hearing, before a representative of Michigan's Treasury Department, was set in motion by a 7-to-1 City Council vote earlier this month to appeal Snyder?s decision. Detroit's central claim is that it needs more time to allow the initiatives established in last year?s consent agreement to take effect. Twenty of the 25 initiatives in that agreement, such as monthly financial reporting to the state and restructuring of pension contracts, ?are in progress,? Irv Corley, fiscal analyst for the Detroit City Council, said at the hearing.
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