Population Decline Initiated The City 's Fiscal Stress

On December 3rd, 2015, the mayor of Flint, MI Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency because of the high levels of lead in the water supply. Two weeks later President Obama directed FEMA to help provide equipment and resources to the citizens affected, including providing bottled water and local water stations around the city. On March 21st, 2016, Governor Rick Snyder came out with an outline that addresses the agencies goal to help fix the crisis. It focused on providing professional support for children under 6 with elevated lead levels, replacing water fixtures in public facilities, replacing the city’s 8,000 lead service lines, and increasing resources for schools. (Michigan.gov. 2017). Through April to July 2016, nine state officials and employees face criminal

For instance, the city Detroit has had a recent reduction in population percentages. As a result of the decrease in population growth, the Brightmoor neighborhood in Detroit area is being gentrified as of a similar situation resorting to the decline of population along the rest of the city. To handle the situation, the neighborhood has been renovated with an astounding outcome been increasing in population due to city helping college students get their bachelor’s degrees raising the population to 48 percent. This is great for Detroit because now that

Before diving into the relevant action steps, it is important to understand the history that led to this crisis. Thompson (2010), states that after World War II, cities were highly valued and popular until conflict, poverty, and distress led to the demise of these cities; thus increasing the value of suburban

He argues that the city does not have an elected official running the city; instead, the state appointed a bankruptcy lawyer, Kevyn Orr, who answers only to the state governor (Eisinger, 2013). As such, Orr does not serve the residents of Detroit specifically, which Eisinger states is a central urban function of a city. Instead, Orr is primarily in charge of recasting the city budget and selling assets to help pay off the extraordinary debt, and published a report of the situation in Detroit in 2013. Eisinger also argues that the public services in Detroit are in crisis. The effectiveness and efficiency of the police department is “extremely low” (Eisinger, 2013), and that the public transportation system is unreliable; it should be noted that Detroit “is one of the few cities in the United States without public transportation between the city and its major airport.”

In the past decade Detroit municipal government has undergone rapid changes in its institutional functions. The city government once allowed for all nine members to be elected at-large but since a 2009 referendum was held with overwhelming approval that amended the city charter, Detroit now requires that just seven of its nine councilors be elected via wards or districts while two of the cities councilors are elected at large. The change that occurred in the city of Detroit was seen by many as being a way of cleaning the city up after decades of corruption crippling the cities political functions and economic growth, and after the forced removal and resignation of the corrupt mayor and council president, the citizens of Detroit sought to clean

There are many factors to point blame at when considering Detroit’s failure. A city that was dependent on manufacturing cars was bound to flounder when the factories moved elsewhere. Tensions among races became prevalent throughout the city, ending with whites moving into the suburbs. Corruption consumed the city’s government, and the leaders led the city into the ground. The aftermath of these actions have been thrown upon the people who stayed in the city of Detroit. These people are living in unsafe conditions due to the fact crime rates are so high, and the police presence is so scarce. The children are apart of a failing education system; the foundation of the buildings aren’t up to public health code, they have limited resources, and a lack of teachers willing to work. When talking about the future of Detroit, where does one see the future for these people? Why is there a new hockey arena being built, while the deteriorating schools are being left to fall apart? Large sums of money are being poured into the city’s assets, but the investors are forgetting the most important asset of Detroit, it’s people.

Millions of people move around The United States each year. A total of, “7,628,000 moved to a different state” (Avrick). Of those seven point six million, thousands move to the state of Michigan. Some people move to be closer to the great lakes for fishing, boating, or jet skiing. Even though Michigan is a fine state to make a new home in, there is a city in Michigan that movers might need to venture from. This city is the city of Detroit. Detroit is not one of the best moving decisions for just about anyone. There are many problems in the city of Detroit that might cause movers to reconsider moving there.

Background: Flint had several types of industries operating out of its city limit for most part of the last century. By the end of last century Flint had lost several businesses which led to high rate of unemployment and loss of government revenue which, in turn, led to a failure to provide services to its residents. In 2011 Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointed an emergency financial manager to handle Flint’s budget. Ever since Michigan took over Flint’s beleaguered finances in 2011, it has been trying to cut costs whenever possible.

Many do not know of the budget crisis going on but those that do recognize it is a major issue. These citizens that understand what is going of have begun to protest because their safety is at risk. The cuts that have been going on reduce the size of the police force which in turn brings crime rates up, and also fire departments have fewer men and unmaintained equipment to help rescue civilians. This scares many citizens into either moving to a city with a better emergency service budget or protesting to get their city’s budget raised. "I pray that nobody in this room needs the police or fire in their new future," another attendee remarked” (qtd. In Smith 5). Many citizens feel that their local governments have been focused on the wrong things. They believe that the local governments have it all wrong. One citizen quoted in Smith paragraph 6 said “the public service has to be number one.” These civilians have gone to city council meeting with petitions and protested a change. In some areas, this has led to budget renegotiations as well as contracts being

Like any directly voted democracy should, the citizens in Michigan wanted to ensure that their rights was to be meant however the governor simply passed Public Act 436 in which took away their rights to veto a bill by referendum. Simple, yet unlawful legislation destroys the natural attachment that people had with Michigan. In Federalist papers #46 says in terms that ‘The natural attachment of the people will always be to the governments of their respective states” and when a state government does something that destroys the trust of the citizens to their respective government then that bond is truly hard to get back. Not only with passing these various legislation that destroys any legal hands that the citizens have over their state government but also the water crisis in Flint will only destroy that bond even

Flint is not new to emergency management, as it was one of the initial cities to be under the system with an appointed emergency manager, and has had four emergency managers in a span of a few years, beginning in 2011 (Hakala, 2016). Much earlier than this, in 2002, Flint was first appointed an emergency manager who was to rescue Flint’s financial crisis at the time, and this emergency manager was in charge of the finances of the city of Flint until 2006, when it was said that the financial troubles were eliminated (Michigan Radio Newsroom, 2011). In 2011, Flint’s government began to make significant employment layoffs, pay cuts and cuts in benefits to government workers, as well as public jobs such as teachers, police officers, etc. in order to combat monetary turmoil within the once-again financially damaged city of Flint. These types of changes have been going on since 2011, with funds and government employees declining. In a 2016 article, Flint’s current mayor, Dayne Walling, is quoted as saying, “Flint 's government has not become more efficient, just smaller”, and “[Flint] is doing less with less” (Hakala, 2016). He is also quoted as saying that “[Michigan] need(s) a better relationship between state and local government” (Hakala, 2016). The struggles that manifest upon the appointing of an emergency manager are simply the opposite of what should ideally be happening once emergency financial aid to a city becomes needed. The need for budget as well as some pay cuts

This report provides data on the current budget of the State of Michigan. It includes data on state government finances based on information collected from the 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report CAFR, and the State of Michigan Executive Budget for the fiscal year 2016. This report covers the following: revenues, expenditures, and debt, fund balances, and credit rating. For many years, Michigan 's economy declined while the nation 's economy thrived. Grasping this one-state recession is essential for determining Michigan 's economic present and future. It is also important to understand why Michigan stayed in a recession while the rest of the country’s economy flourished, and why it ended, because those may be vital solutions to avoiding another downturn.

Layoffs brought much saving, but new positions post was added later, which added more jobs, meaning more government spending. Debt of Toronto has been rising, and the interest payments on debt have placed a huge burden on the operating of the city. Unifying wages, which means paying the same salary to employees of six local municipalities for the same work, increased salary costs. As for financing issues, in 2003, Toronto did not gain any fund neither from the federal government, nor gain the fund from the provincial government, that is even fewer than 38 big cities in united states(Schwartz，2009,p.487).The ability to raise revenue of Toronto is governed by Ontario's municipal law, and provincial and federal municipalities are reluctant to provide additional financial assistance. However, most of the 38 big cities in the united states have the legal right to use sales taxes and income taxes of city hall, and are greatly assisted by the state and federal governments (Schwartz,2009, p.487). Capital expenditures in Toronto mainly include the construction of public facilities, environmental maintenance and the service capital assets required for enterprises and individuals. More importantly, a largely number of infrastructures should be provided and maintained for more people in this new city. In 2004, the government received more funding from the provincial government in order to meet its infrastructure needs, which, however, causes a substantial increase in capital

In 2009 the American auto industry was in a dire economic state. Chrysler was in Chapter 11, GM was on the brink of bankruptcy, and Ford’s future was at best uncertain. The demise of the U.S. auto industry would have a devastating impact on our national economy and specifically the economies of Michigan and Ohio.

Corporations are taking over the urban landscape. In previous years, many upper and middle class families fled to the suburbs to escape the everyday hustle of city life. However, in recent years, city living has become glamorized and thus the movement back into the city has increased. Once blighted inner-city neighborhoods are being taken over and revitalized by corporate leaders in hopes to redesign and yuppify these areas. As more money is put into the area, the higher the market value goes up and as a result, many local residents can no longer afford to live there. While these residents are pushed out, a more ‘desirable’ group of residents move in and thus, take over. This process, known as gentrification, is occurring in many cities all across the nation. In the past, displaced residents could possibly move to another area that was not undergoing this process. However, as we are seeing in Chicago, it is nearing impossibility to move to an area within the city that will not