U.S.: Cash-strapped Detroit could face state takeover bid
- The entire structure of the city reflects a 1950s model in which the United States was the dominant economy of the world and automobile manufacturing was the core driver. None of that is true anymore.
- Former Detroit City Council member Sheila Cockrel • Discussing the city’s major financial issues — which are so bad that the state has ordered a review of the city in a move that could lead Michigan to take it over. It would be the largest city of its kind to be taken over by the state government, but one that has fallen the furthest: With a quickly-declining population that has fallen by a quarter in the past decade, a $150 million budget deficit and a $45 million financial shortfall expected for the current fiscal year, options are running slim for a city defined by auto industry culture in good ways and bad. If the state takes over, the council that Cockrel was once a member of and mayor Dave Bing could get sidelined. Ouch. source