Pity poor Rick Snyder. According to the Detroit Free Press, the poor governor has no good options when it comes to the city of Detroit. Why, he is just going to be forced to name an emergency manager and he just can't help it.
Leave aside that he didn't have to push for the draconian law in the first place. Let's go right to the point that he and his fellow Republicans have helped create the budget deficit that is the cause of the city's financial problem.
The State of Michigan owes the city of Detroit $220 million in revenue sharing, enough to eliminate the city's structural deficit. That's according to another article in the Detroit Free Press. And if the Legislature claims it doesn't have the money, it could still help by allowing the city to raise its income taxes by $155 million, reversing a decline in income tax rates put in place a decade ago.
Why aren't those options for Snyder? Why isn't he pushing the Legislature to allow Detroit to raise its income tax and collect the money it needs to run the city? Why isn't Snyder asking the Legislature to pay the revenue sharing that is owed to the city of Detroit? The Free Press's crack Lansing staff didn't bother to pose those questions to Bing's staff, instead going with the "there aren't any other options" line that casts the governor in a sympathetic light.
It's hard not to conclude that the Snyder administration is helping push the city of Detroit into bankruptcy by withholding state aid and authority to raise taxes. The Free Press buries this information in a separate story, separating Snyder from options that aren't being used. This way, the focus is being kept on the so-called greedy unions who can be blamed for not giving more and more concessions that will result in fewer firefighters, fewer police officers, and more corporations taking over city services and milking them for profit.
That emergency manager law needs to be repealed so games like this stop.
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