Absurdity: Detroit's Mayor has 48 City Unions to Deal With

By Warner Todd Huston

Want to know one of the reasons that Detroit (and every other major US city) is in such trouble? Democrat Mayor Dave Bing is struggling with a black hole of a budget deficit that he is stuck dealing with and one of his biggest stumbling blocks to fiscal sanity is the government unions. Oh, it isn't just a few city government unions, either. He has 48 of them to deal with. 48 government unions all sucking up the tax payer's dollars!

Granted Mayor Bing has decided not to take steps that might alleviate the budget long-term (like abolishing certain programs and city departments), but as the Detroit Free Press notes the unions are a major problem causing the city to spend $1.08 in employee benefits for every dollar the city spends on payroll.

As things stand the city has 8,000 active employees but is stuck with a legacy cost of 22,000 retired workers. Because of this, fully 30% of Detroit's budget is going to retirees' pension benefits.

The Wall Street Journal reports that at least one Detroit area budget morass might be on the road to better health. Detroit school system chief Robert Bobb has already sent letters to the school district's 5,466 employees. He's informed them that they should expect major changes, including layoffs.

Bobb is quickly asserting the provisions of a new law signed by Michigan's GOP Governor Rick Snyder giving him a bit more power to forcefully confront government unions.

Mr. Bing, a Democrat, doesn't have additional authority to break union contracts and circumvent City Council, but under the new law Mr. Snyder could invest this authority in municipal chief executives such as the mayor of Detroit. That possibility, and the further threat of a state takeover, is giving Mr. Bing more clout to push for major changes.

With a city deficit expected to reach $1.5 million by 2015, Bing and Bobb need all the help they can get.
Mayor Bing has called for government unions to make more concessions, but Bing says he refuses to consider layoffs. This is a foolish thing to say, really. It takes out of his arsenal the one most powerful weapon he has to deal with the government unions.

Still, ya gotta love a guy that wears a fedora as Bing so often does. Let's hope that Bing can get a handle on this union problem. He has a hard road to hoe. For sure he is being mugged by reality like so many other Democrat mayors of America's big cities.

Census: Detroit population falls 25 per cent in past decade, losing more than 237,000 people...

Detroit Skyline

By John Flesher

– 22 Mar 2011

• A chained fence at the former General Motors engine plant closed in 2010

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Hammered by the auto industry's slump, Detroit saw its population plummet 25 per cent over the past decade, according to census data released yesterday that reflects the severity of an economic downturn in the only state whose population declined since 2000.

 

Statistics show Motor City's population fell to 713,777 in 2010, compared to 951,270 in 2000.
Although a significant drop was expected, state demographer, Ken Darga, said the number is "considerably lower" than the Census Bureau's estimate last year.

"That's just incredible," added Kurt Metzger, a demographer with Data Driven Detroit, a non-profit that collects statistics used by area planners.

"It's certainly the largest population loss percentage-wise we've ever had in this city."

Mayor Dave Bing disputed the numbers, claiming his city has at least 750,000 residents, which he called an important threshold for qualifying for some state and federal financial programs.

He didn't say how so many people were missed by census workers, but he said he planned to appeal.
Detroit's population peaked at 1.8 million in 1950, when it ranked fifth nationally.

Yesterday's numbers reflect the steady decline of the auto industry — the city's economic lifeblood for a century — and an exodus of many residents to the suburbs.

"The census figures clearly show how crucial it is to reinvent Michigan," Gov. Rick Snyder said.
"It is time for all of us to realign our expectations so that they reflect today's realities.

"We cannot cling to the old ways of doing business."

Metzger said the drop-off in Detroit partially reflects the migration of middle-class blacks to suburban counties, a trend begun by whites decades ago.

The numbers also show many blacks have given up on Michigan altogether: the state's black population fell by 1.8 per cent.

That marks Michigan's first drop in black residents since statehood, and a historically significant change for a state long a magnet for blacks leaving the South to escape discrimination and seek jobs, said William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer.

More recently, the housing crisis has accelerated foreclosures, and driven down prices, which Metzger said has enabled more black families to buy houses in the suburbs.

The statewide population fell 0.6 per cent over the decade, although it did make gains with Hispanics and residents of Asian origin.
The Asian population was 236,490, up 35 per cent over the decade — Michigan's fastest growing racial group.
Asians now account for 2.4 per cent of the state's residents.

Michigan's Hispanic population grew by 34.7 per cent, to 436,358 or 4.4 per cent of the overall population.

Also up slightly was the Native American population, which rose 1.3 per cent.

Detroit in Ruins
THE OBSERVER: Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's extraordinary photographs documenting the dramatic decline of a major American city

To the photo gallery >>> | Sunday, January 2, 2011