Snyder: bring 50000 immigrants to Detroit

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Because they aren't eligible? Bankruptcy is a perfectly sensible path for cities with intractable debt problems, but there aren't so many cities in Detroit's position. And if your budget is only a bit out of balance, putting your fate into the hands of a bankruptcy judge might not be such an appealing option.



I beg to differ. Chicago's mayor just announced that he's going to be forced to double the property tax on Chicago homeowners to help pay for that cities underfunded pension obligations. Detroit is just the first major city to go bankrupt, more will follow. [[sorry I don't know how to put quotations around a previous post)

[mwilbert]

Because they aren't eligible? Bankruptcy is a perfectly sensible path for cities with intractable debt problems, but there aren't so many cities in Detroit's position. And if your budget is only a bit out of balance, putting your fate into the hands of a bankruptcy judge might not be such an appealing option.



I beg to differ. Chicago's mayor just announced that he's going to be forced to double the property tax on Chicago homeowners to help pay for that cities underfunded pension obligations. Detroit is just the first major city to go bankrupt, more will follow. [[sorry I don't know how to put quotations around a previous post)

If you want to understand the difference between Chicago's situation and Detroit's, consider that people are seriously talking as if it might be possible to handle their pension problem by doubling Chicago's property tax, whereas no one was foolish enough to think that doubling Detroit's property tax would accomplish anything except the complete abandonment of the city. I'm sure some other cities will go bankrupt at some point--some already have. But to be as fiscally messed up as Detroit is a pretty high bar.