30 June: End of fiscal year for City of Detroit...

[Al Publican]

Where does Detroit stand budget wise for fiscal year 2009-2010 and the upcoming fiscal year 2010-2011? What has Dave Bing and City Council done to close the budget gap?

[Crumbled_pavement]

I don't have numbers but I can tell you this, with the enormous amount of abandonment that has happened in the last five years the tax base has to shrink at a breakneck pace. Add that to the fact that those who remain are seeing drastic drops in property value which also equals less tax revenue collected and you have a situation where there will be a budget shortfall for a very long time no matter how many cuts are made.

Translation: I don't know if anyone can close the gap as the gap is still widening all the time.

[Al Publican]

Should Detroit go the way of Vallejo, California and declare bankruptcy? And then privatize everything possible. Dump binding arbitration with police and firefighter unions. [[I'm retired DFD.) Sell vacant land to prospective urban settlers with provisions that they build something within three years or so. Mothball as many defunct neighborhoods as possible for future use Encourage immigrants to move in and develop a small business class that many Detroiters have shunned for decades as being too alien, as being some sort of outside threat to the status quo of nothingness.

In short, inspire a second capitalist revolution in Detroit that embraces all while shunning anti-social lumpen proletarians. What other alternatives are there for Detroit now that Lansing and Washington are no longer there to support a make-work existence of City Hall being the biggest employer in town?

[Danny]

We are have to let KING BING do his thing. At least our Detroit Public Parks will stay open and its grass cut eventually.

[Retroit]

Well said, Al Publican. Drastic times demand drastic measures. For too long, Detroiters have been looking outside Detroit for "cookie-cutter" solutions to its problems. Unfortunately, the outside world does not have solutions to Detroit's problems because Detroit's problems are unique. I don't know what it will take: declaring Detroit a Disaster Area?...declaring a State of Emergency?...imposing Martial Law?...? But something extraordinary will need to be done because something extraordinary has been done.

[Novine]

"Drastic times demand drastic measures."

No they don't. What's required is right-sizing the city's workforce to match the number of residents and getting employees to agree to reductions in compensation and benefits temporarily until the economy turns around. It may require the city going through a modified bankruptcy process as GM and Chrysler did to reduce or shed some of its debt. It needs some help getting its long-term costs straightened out. But the city could run a fiscally-balanced operation without massive downsizing or elimination of services. That won't fix all that's wrong with Detroit but a city that has balanced books is one less problem that needs to be fixed and allows the city to contribute to its own improvement, not being another obstacle dragging it down.