Warren Evans asks state to declare a Financial Emergency

[emu steve]

This step was expected. The next one [[consent agreement? will that work? bankruptcy if it doesn't?) will be controversial.

I see a lot of apples and oranges here...

"Evans said a consent agreement would allow the county to continue negotiations with stakeholders while giving it the ability, if necessary, to find other ways to achieve cost-savings and the county's $52 million structural deficit — a recurring shortfall that stems from an underfunded pension system and a $100 million yearly drop in property tax revenue since 2008."

1). Income down 100M in yearly property tax revenues. Okay, that is a here and now cash flow problem.

2). Underfunded pension system.

#2 - can the county declare a financial emergency based on something which will come to bite the county in the future?

EDIT:

Here is the relevant information to questions I raised above:

"Besides its $52 million annual structural deficit, the county takes about $20 million from its general fund each year to bolster its pension system."

So the pension fund contribution from the general fund is 20M.

Curious: 20M out of what [[total general fund)?????

EDIT[[2). Total county budget about 1.7B. So 20M is slightly more than 1%.

http://www.waynecounty.com/mb/1240.htm