Ex-governor Snyder to be charged in Flint water crisis

[Burnsie]

Ultimately, yeah it was Snyder's fault about the water. The Flint mayor and council answered to Snyder's handpicked emergency manager. Don't Republicans like to style themselves as the party of "personal responsibility?"

[Richard]

Ultimately, yeah it was Snyder's fault about the water. The Flint mayor and council answered to Snyder's handpicked emergency manager. Don't Republicans like to style themselves as the party of "personal responsibility?"

It was a democrat mayor,a democrat city council and a democrat EM,it was cheaper to continue using DWSD.

At the crux was the state and federal infrastructure funds that the city of Flint would have benefited from by construction of the new water pipeline.

It was thought jobs and revenue for the city,short term,yea okay,but it still would have ended up costing the city of Flint residents more in the long run, then it would have then to just stay hooked up to DWSD,because that little shot in the arm of infrastructure was only a temporary solution.

Granted Republican control of Flint for the last 50 years brought it to the place it was.Right?

The reason a democrat EM was picked or appointed was so it would remove the ability to say,see it is the republicans fault.

Unless of course a democrat mayor,democrat city council and a democrat EM could not figure it out then who else is left to blame but a Republican.

I would think it would be more productive to look at who benefited from the new pipeline,clearly the city of Flint residents did not,nor did the state of Michigan and United States taxpayers.

Then when they got $390 million + another $100 million flat out fed grant.

They spent it on social programs instead of what the intended use was for.

About $129 million was spent on economic development and “social development,” nearly as much as the $144 million spent on safe drinking water, according to the state budget tally.

• The funds have paid for free daycare for kids too young to have been impacted by the main crisis, according to state records, and for basketball, according to a book; residents are even being paid $50 to sign up for other government benefits.
• Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a Flint activist, said the money has enabled “the stuff progressives dream about,” and a state budget spokesman said local officials are lobbying to keep services even as the water problem fades.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/15/f...oney-spending/

So the democrats in Flint have brought it back full circle into what brought a republican into their house in the first place.

It always seems to be a problem when you start seeing free money in the hundreds of millions,to many times we find out that somebody some where was there with their grubby fingers, playing games while the people end up suffering the consequences.

In the end,the funds will run out,the residents will not be able to afford the extra added taxes to support the social programs,so they will be broke and with a screwed infrastructure again in a few short years.

Damn republicans,where do they get their reasoning from?

The first case that was settled for the $600 million had little to do with guilt or not,it had to come to a conclusion in order for the states ability to sell bonds for other infrastructure programs.

When you have uncertainty,like there is again with this,it lowers the states ratings and ability to sell bonds at a decent rate.

https://www.fitchratings.com/research/us-public-finance/flint-water-settlement-eliminates-downside-credit-risk-for-michigan-01-12-2020

It will not be about guilt or not,just providing a facade of holding somebody accountable,but not really.

The entire state will not risk everything over flint or any other individual city even more so,if you run a campaign on fixing the roads,you cannot fix them without selling bonds,you cannot get bonds at a reasonable rate when you have this kind of uncertainty going on.

So they will make it go away as fast as possible with as little impact as possible,so it does not drag the whole state down with it.

R or D it does not matter,it will be a D behind clearing that R.

Now go back to March of 2016

Michigan currently has the wherewithal to support projected additional costs and maintain the current rating," Spain said. "But if costs related to the Flint water crisis or distressed local credits escalate, there could be credit pressure."

https://www.governing.com/archive/tns-michigan-flint-detroit-financial-rating.html

That is why they came up with the $600 million settlement number ,because that was what the state could comfortably absorb because at that time Snyder had a positive balance in the budget,or rainy day fund,without imploding financially across the rest of the cities.

If that same Flint situation would have happened this year, with no state reserves in place or rainy day fund,because of Covid,it would have taken years for the state to recover after that crash.