As of May 2012, there are four cities with appointed Emergency Managers (Pontiac, Ecorse, Benton Harbor, and Flint) and three cities with active consent agreements (River Rouge, Inkster, and Detroit.) This study looks at several factors that may separate these seven cities from other cities in Michigan that are in fiscal stress. The purpose of this study is to find out how well the Emergency Manager Law has been applied to fiscally stressed cities in Michigan and what common factors are shared by the cities that have gone through the process. The study is intended to fact check some of the arguments on both sides of the debate and yield some truth about how the Laws affect certain cities over others.
As cities around the country show more signs of fiscal distress from years of economic downturn, and municipal bankruptcies become more common, Michiganders are paying much greater attention to our state’s policies for dealing with municipal fiscal stress. The extreme case of a local financial emergency in which an Emergency Manager is appointed to take over a city has been widely debated this year after the passage of Public Act 4 in March. However, it is important to recognize the history of state intervention in municipal fiscal stress in this country and in this state.
Governor-elect Rick Snyder ran a campaign that included as one of its primary components a strong urban agenda. Now that he will be assuming the state's highest office come January, he will have a chance to make good on his promise to restore Michigan's urban core-namely the city of Detroit. As Snyder proclaimed during the campaign, "Michigan cannot be a great state until Detroit is on the path to being a great city."
With the state House’s recent approval of an 11% cut in municipal revenue sharing for the coming fiscal year, Michigan municipalities began bracing for a sizeable blow to their budgets. Facing some of the more drastic cuts in the state are its urban core cities, which face cuts from the hundreds of thousands to several millions of dollars.
Detroit's night shift may find it harder to get to and from work on the city's buses as the city gets ready to cut late night and early morning service from almost 40 routes.
Urban Affairs
An Analysis of Governor Snyder's Community Development and Local Government Reforms
Written by Peter Croce
Friday, 25 March 2011 00:48
Continuing his "transform and consolidate government" mantra, Governor Snyder has proposed many new plans to reform previous legislation to encourage consolidation of economic development on a state or metropolitan level, rather than our current fragmented system. His ultimate goal is to create more than just a couple great Michigan cities, but rather a whole "region" of placemaking. By adhering to the following proposals, Governor Snyder believes it will encourage economic development as well as develop a sense of place among Michiganders.
Governor-elect Rick Snyder ran a campaign that included as one of its primary components a strong urban agenda. Now that he will be assuming the state's highest office come January, he will have a chance to make good on his promise to restore Michigan's urban core-namely the city of Detroit. As Snyder proclaimed during the campaign, "Michigan cannot be a great state until Detroit is on the path to being a great city."
It is easy to make the case that Detroit will continue to require a great deal of attention from the governor's office, but if soon-to-be Governor Snyder thinks that he might set out straight away to improve Detroit from the inside out, he may discover some immediate setbacks upon his arrival to work in Lansing.
To begin, Snyder will find Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb's departure only months away. Bobb announced in late October that he will honor the time commitments of his contract, but will not return to work thereafter. The governor-elect will need to select a replacement, but also is calling for a clear plan for the easement and eventual exit of the state from the district's affairs. Snyder wishes to return control of DPS to its superintendent and school board, and for Detroit voters to decide whether or not to hand the reigns to the city government.
Fiscal issues with the school district and the City will be laid at the new governor's feet. The City is in the verge of bankruptcy, despite efforts to shrink its operating budget, and Robert Bobb has proposed the forgiveness of the school district's $322 million deficit in exchange for drastic reorganization measures. Bobb is apparently meeting with Snyder regarding the affairs of the school district, but the governor-elect has stated that he is making "no promises" regarding Detroit's fiscal disaster.
Snyder, in his attempt to push a progressive transportation agenda, will find himself facing the following two issues in Detroit: the construction of a new bridge to Windsor, and legislation to create a three-county metropolitan transit authority. The former will likely go supported by the governor, but will ultimately require the approval of the Republican-controlled legislature, which is being lobbied heavily by Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun in opposition to the project.
The legislation currently on the table to create a metropolitan transit authority for Metro Detroit is, for the most part supported by governments and transit advocates in southeast Michigan, save for the primary intended benefactor: the City of Detroit. The city government is concerned that the proposal comes at the wrong time, as the transit agency may be the new designated recipient of future federal transit funds. This is especially of concern with plans the Woodward light rail line currently underway. The City is also concerned that no reliable source of funding has been designated, leaving the financial security of the agency in jeopardy upon its very inception.
Snyder may also find himself hard pressed to keep government programs running without any increase in revenue. Though he seems decisively opposed to tax increases, the reality of a rapidly declining state and local revenue base may force his hand in support of new revenue-generating measures. Whether his Republican cohorts in the legislature would allow this to occur would certainly be a great test of the caucuses' trust in the state's leadership.
Governor-elect Snyder may wish to hit the ground running in his quest to "reinvent" Michigan, but he may first need to overcome a severe political and economic reality check before he can implement his ambitious urban agenda. He himself may possess the mettle to stand by it, but the political landscape and the Michigan economy are obstacles that he may find more obstructive than anticipated.
The Urban Agenda and Sunday's Debate: What to Expect
Written by Michael Raley
Sunday, 10 October 2010 06:07
Michigan gubernatorial candidates Rick Snyder and Virg Bernero will face off Monday in the first and only televised debate of this year's election season. The candidates, both political upstarts who upset their respective party's candidates, are pitted in a race for the governorship of what may very well be the nation's most tired states. Michigan has maintained an unemployment rate above the national rate since late 2000, and the current rate sits at 13.1%. Though this is actually a continuation in a downward trend for unemployment that has been occurring since December 2009, it is hardly the relief Michiganders have been looking for. The state whose economic confidence was the second lowest in the nation as of February, according to Gallup, will likely not see a change in its mindset for much time to come.
What makes this race so interesting is that both candidates have spent a great deal of time touting an urban agenda for their prospective governorships. The emphasis on urban affairs is understandable enough for Bernero, who has served as Lansing's mayor since 2006. Perhaps more unusual in this race is the agenda of Republican Snyder, who also has concerned himself greatly with the welfare of Michigan's urban core, a policy area avoided more often than not by Republicans.
The candidates share not just a concern for the welfare of cities-they also have very similar agendas for urban Michigan. Bernero's website and Snyder's white paper both chide the "hole in the donut" brand of land use and economic development planning that has characterized the growth of the state's metropolitan areas for decades, and advocate for a strong "mass transit backbone", as Snyder's agenda puts it. Bernero and Snyder also call for partnerships with local business and Michigan's university system. Public safety, green energy, and reform of government are common threads for the candidates' urban agendas as well.
The Differences
Where then, do the candidates differ? Neither seems necessarily to oppose the other on any given issue, but each includes items in his urban agenda that is largely left out, for one reason or another, from that of the other.
Bernero, a known supporter of Michigan's unions, has included fair labor practices in his urban agenda. The Lansing mayor has also included in his urban agenda affordable housing, something that the Snyder campaign has yet to touch on. Snyder, on the other hand, has expressed an interest in increased funding for arts, culture, and tourism-something his GOP cohorts may find rather leftward for their liking. Snyder's urban agenda also calls for an alleviation of the tax burden on new development in central cities through tax credits. Bernero's agenda does not specifically call for this, though it should be noted that similar measures have been taken by the Lansing Economic Development Corporation during his administration as mayor.
What to Expect
As the debate will be occurring in Detroit, urban issues may very well be somewhat of an elephant in the room. Given that Snyder and Bernero have both made the urban agenda a major part of the agenda, and that they largely agree on what must be done for Michigan's cities, it would be interesting to see if the two attempt to make the urban agenda an area of disagreement.
The candidates, however, will be hard pressed to differentiate themselves from one another in this regard, as the urban agenda is, based on what they have let on thus far, not an area on which they greatly differ. By and large, Bernero and Snyder have similar goals for Michigan's cities. They will have to tread elsewhere to draw any great distinction between themselves (save for their personalities), and they undoubtedly will do so.
What would be of great interest, however, is to see how much time is actually devoted to the urban agenda. Will the candidates want to spend time pandering to the urban voter? Or will they seek to use more of that time to debate issues that will make clearer the choice Michigan must make?
Graduation Gaps between White and African-American Students at Wayne State University
Written by Leah Beasley-Wojick
Wednesday, 22 September 2010 02:37
There exists an alarming problem at many higher education institutions today-a startling gap between the graduation rates of White and African American undergraduate students. Nationally, African American students earn bachelor's degrees at rates 20 percentage points below those of their White peers (Lynch & Engle, 2010, p. 2). Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan has recently garnered national attention after the release of a study by The Education Trust (2010) which reports that the institution has the worst graduation gap between White and African American students for all public institutions in the United States (Lynch & Engle). Over a three year period (2006-2008), less than one in ten (9.5%) African Americans graduates from the institution, while more than four times (43.5%) that many White students do. Not only is this an educational issue, but it is also an urban public policy issue for the city of Detroit (Lynch & Engle).
Its mission is brought up with only the best intentions, but many Michiganders are not feeling the same way. The proposal is simply titled "Ban the Box." Introduced earlier this month, Detroit's City Council has been laboring trying to draft up proposals to improve life on the outside for convicted felons. Headed by Ken Cockrel Jr, Kwame Kenyatta, and Charles Pugh, Detroit is looking to follow in the growing trend of other major United States cities. "Ban the Box" as it is known, looks to remove questions such as "have you previously been convicted of a felony" from job applications.
The Michigan Policy Network is a student-led public education and research program to report and organize news and information about the political process surrounding Michigan state policy issues. It is run out of the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University, with participation by students from the College of Social Science, the College of Communication, and James Madison College.
The thoughts, opinions, and positions represented herein are solely those of the participating students and in no way represent an official position or policy recommendation of Michigan State University.
Michael Raley is a fourth year Sociology and Public Administration/Public Policy student at Michigan State University. He is especially interested in the public policy, politics, and sociology of urban space, as well as transportation systems and public transit. A native of the Grand Rapids area, Michael is currently an intern in the office of State Representative Roy Schmidt, who represents the west and northeast sides of the city. He also aspires to pursue a career in urban and regional planning, and hopes to attend graduate school for such a course of study.
