Wayne County Finances

[emu steve]

I realize that understanding governmental budgets isn't easy and it isn't like a family budget which operates 'on a cash basis', but nevertheless it sounds promising. An operating general fund surplus is a plus.

Nevertheless, this sentence alone is promising:

"On Feb. 19, rating agency Moody's Investors Service boosted its outlook for Wayne County from negative to stable, citing reductions in retirement liabilities and other operating expenses.

"http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...rnoon-20160405

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

This is good news, but as Mr. Evans says, it is just a first step toward fiscal sanity. The overspending, shady contracts and horrendous decisions of the previous administration will be with us for many years.

The jail situation is the giant white elephant with no good solutions. Spend way more money to finish it or yet even more money to start from scratch at Mound Road. Financially the former makes more sense. But in terms of what actually works better for downtown Detroit, there is no doubt building at Mound Rd makes more sense. Finishing the jail is probably the lesser of two evils, although it is still pretty damn evil. If anyone sees the former county exec, be sure to flip him your middle Ficano.

[Hypestyles]

... would it take another loan to finish the jail downtown? Would the county commissioners go for that? How much in bond money is the county already owing?

[compn]

wayne county is going to go bankrupt. wayne co is going to get an EM.

[Johnnny5]

Not having to employ a small army of chauffeurs for Ficano probably accounts for half the savings.

I'm glad to hear that Wayne County is making some progress, but I'm still beyond disappointed that those responsible for this mess aren't wearing orange jumpsuits.

[emu steve]

wayne county is going to go bankrupt. wayne co is going to get an EM.

I think your post would be more timely if you made it LAST year.

Things are getting better especially with the positive cash flow...

Cash flow is always the #1 concern, i.e., are revenues > expenditures?

Then one can look at certain structural issues down the road.

Apparently progress is being made on all fronts and that is good.

No reason for a county such as Wayne to go bankrupt. Bankruptcy should be limited to cities [[e.g., depopulated ones) which have overwhelming problems.

Wayne, as a county, seems to be stable to growing slightly OTHER THAN the population loss in Detroit.

The sooner Detroit, a drag on Wayne County, gets turned around the better for the county.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

compn, I think the county would benefit tremendously from a bankruptcy, so that it could further restructure the benefits/retirement packages for employees. As a bonus, we might get to tear up the terrible corrupt contracts that Ficano gave to his cronies. I do like Warren Evans a lot, and he might be able to head off the "crisis" that would necessitate a bankruptcy. Either way, I hope the politicians don't take a little breathing room as a reason to start spending again.

Hyperstyles, the county would need to borrow money in some form to address the jail situation. It needs to be done before a federal court steps in and starts freeing criminals due to over crowding and substandard conditions [[that happened in California). I don't know how much they're in the hole for on the project, but likely a whole lot more than the 200M+ that has already been spent, due to the county's poor credit rating.

I do think Detroit will ultimately save Wayne County's finances, but it will take several more years to start being felt. Redevelopment is bringing old properties back onto taxpayer rolls, albeit slowly. And many new developments bring a much higher property values than what was there before, which will ultimately fertilize the tax base. But it will not be significant for a few more years. Prop tax growth is a lagging indicator.

[rjlj]

The County may have a budget surplus but how much debt does the county have? DPS use to tout their budget surplus as did the City of Detroit during the Kwame years. it should nice but dig deeper to see the real story.

I realize that understanding governmental budgets isn't easy and it isn't like a family budget which operates 'on a cash basis', but nevertheless it sounds promising. An operating general fund surplus is a plus.

Nevertheless, this sentence alone is promising:

"On Feb. 19, rating agency Moody's Investors Service boosted its outlook for Wayne County from negative to stable, citing reductions in retirement liabilities and other operating expenses.

"http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...rnoon-20160405

[compn]

I think your post would be more timely if you made it LAST year.

i did make a similar comment last year. i'm just repeating it now.

http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/c...unty/29015489/

anyone have any statistics on cities/counties that went for "consent agreements" and got out of the consent agreement without an EM and are now back on stable financial/debt grounds?

all i remember is detroit was under a "consent agreement" before it got an EM and went into bankruptcy court.

just trying to learn from history. i could be wrong. i'm no expert.

[compn]

i also failed to take into account snyders' abilities to govern after flint. i have no idea if he will have the time to do something as big as an EM for wayne county.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

i also failed to take into account snyders' abilities to govern after flint. i have no idea if he will have the time to do something as big as an EM for wayne county.

I think there are legal triggers that have to occur to get an EM. The governor doesn't just deem one. If the county has both a [[small) surplus and is continuing to make changes, I think those triggers would not be met. And bankruptcy and EM are not necessarily coexistent. It's possible to have one without the other. Bankruptcy could be very helpful, but at this point I don't see a judge ordering it. I wish we'd get it, though. The harsh changes that Detroit had to enact in bankruptcy would also benefit the county. But it will have to get worse before we have the chance to get a lot better. In the meantime, we can just hope Evans continues to spend less.

[emu steve]

i did make a similar comment last year. i'm just repeating it now.

http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/c...unty/29015489/

anyone have any statistics on cities/counties that went for "consent agreements" and got out of the consent agreement without an EM and are now back on stable financial/debt grounds?

all i remember is detroit was under a "consent agreement" before it got an EM and went into bankruptcy court.

just trying to learn from history. i could be wrong. i'm no expert.

Thanks for the clarification.

I was relying mostly on the bond rating experts who upgraded Wayne County's finances to 'stable.'

This should be an interesting story to follow.

BTW, I remember posting a while ago [[a few months?) that the City of Detroit's finances are getting better with significant increases in revenues.

I always like 'revenue' numbers because they show if the city, county, state or whatever has 'vitality.' When revenue rises it is usually because things are getting better.

Falling revenues, e.g., North Dakota, because of the 'energy bust' is a real problems. They had a significant 'rainy day' fund and it still wasn't enough to cover lost revenues...

[Expenditures is a measure of how well the government unit is being managed and yes, the jail comes to mind. ]

[Wesley Mouch]

i also failed to take into account snyders' abilities to govern after flint. i have no idea if he will have the time to do something as big as an EM for wayne county.

Snyder fan that I am, I would expect that he'll be even more eager to deal with Wayne County.

Why?

He's toast. And he wants to get things done. Before Flint he had politics to worry about. Now, no political concerns. Might as well forge ahead where it would make a difference.