Michigan Dems' Plan To Bail Out Broke Dem City Proceeds Apace

You never have to say you're sorry, so long as there's still other people's money available.

The Detroit News: Highland Park, GLWA strike deal trying to buy time for final settlement

The tentative deal comes as state lawmakers have attempted to provide bailout money. The Senate Appropriations Committee last month approved a $35.4 billion budget for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that includes $20.3 million for Highland Park to use to repay the estimated $24 million with interest it owes the Great Lakes Water Authority for years of unpaid drinking water bills.

You see, the City of Highland Park doesn't just owe $24 million in unpaid water bills, they owe tens of millions more in unpaid water bills.  Their current annual property tax revenue - $9.6 million. That's a problem. But now thanks to the Michigan Democrats, it won't be the city's problem and there will be no consequences to it and it's leadeship for this rather bad decision.

After all, there's tax money available from the rest of the state's taxpayers to be diverted.

The fun question is what was the city government of Highland Park doing with all the water payments made by residents there to the City all that time when they weren't paying it to GLWA?

A more pressing question is why should everyone else in the state be bailing them out for their deliberate decision and failure to pay for their water bills?

This is What Happens When A City Doesn't Pay Its Bills For 10 Years

The City of Highland Park decided it was going to refuse to pay its water bills for 10 years, claiming it was being overcharged.  

That didn't stop them from using the water all that time, collecting payments form the city residents, and racking up $24 Million with an M in non-payment.   Other municipalities in the region were getting soaked with Highland Park's unpaid bills through higher water rates to their residents.

Now the Piper (of water) has demanded to be paid:

Since the ruling, Highland Park officials have said the bill will financially sink the city. The majority Black city has a population of 8,900 residents, a per capita income of $19,401 and a 41% poverty rate in 2021, according to the Census Bureau. The estimated $24 million tab, the exact amount with interest is still being determined, is two and a half times larger than the $9.6 million Highland Park collects annually in property tax revenues.The Detroit News: Highland Park mayor: City in state of emergency

Yet another Democrat-run city, now hoping for a state-level bailout for its profligate actions. They certainly could have escrowed their water payments over those 10 years, but they apparently spent it on whatever corrupt local units of government spend stuff on, and now they have to come up with the money - or get bailed out.

So of course our dear Governor Whitmer instead of having them responsibly handle the situation of their own making,  suggested the city should be bailed out: 

Whitmer's office for months has suggested that GLWA could help solve the debt issue by tapping a $25 million state clean drinking water grant that the Democratic governor and Republican-led Legislature approved last year. Whitmer's office didn't immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

So instead of using that grant money for the purpose that it was appropriated for - ensuring clean drinking water for the region (kinda an important use of the funds, yes?), the governor wants to use it to bail out a Democrat scofflaw city that failed to pay its water bills for 10 years.

So the politicians and city that messed this up for 10 years should face no consequences and should be bailed out for their failure. That's Michigan under Whitmer for you.

Regionalism - Blue State-ease for "Bail Out"

Regionalism sounds like a wonderful idea, everyone in a region living in harmony and being interdependent and all that. Nice that is, until you get to the details.

Regionalism and interdependence nowadays means that well-run suburbs and areas outside the failed blue-state model cities will bail out the blue state cities' failures.

The Detroit News: Editorial: Highland Park should pay its own water bill

Highland Park, a city landlocked within Detroit, is indeed a showcase of the failed blue state model in Southeast Michigan - a city that didn't even bother sending out water bills for years. Couple it with the failure of the blue state model at the Detroit Water and Sewer Department to even bother trying to collect on the debt for years and you get the current situation where the suburbs are now picking up the tab.

No, it didn't take any special foresight to predict that counties around Detroit would get hosed in the deal, and sure enough it looks like that's happening, starting with all the region having about 3.2% of an upcoming 5% water rate increase to paying off Highland park's unpaid water bill of $30 Million dollars.

As predicted, the regionalism of the corrupt water and sewer department was indeed done to bail it and the City of Detroit and now the City of Highland Park out of their corrupt and failed mismanagement.

A Veritable Rogues Gallery Of Character Witnesses For Embezzler Davis

If you're known by the company you keep, convicted felon Robert Davis should be doing hard time.

Robert Davis, as you may know, is a Detroit Democrat Union activist well known for filing multiple complaints in court any time the union is annoyed about something.  He's also well known for pleading guilty to stealing over $125,00 from the troubled and Democrat-run Highland Park School system.

Now be-clowning themselves with letters to the judge attesting to Davis' good character are such notable Democrat apparatchiks as Geoffrey Fieger, Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garret, and State Rep Philip Cavanagh. They're supporting his attorney's request that Davis  get home release and probation for admittedly stealing over a hundred grand from the poor minority children Democrats always claim to represent. Apparently represent means taking money for the kids and blowing it on personal spending sprees.

Reading the letters, one can clearly see there's no shame in their game, and they seem more upset that he got caught than anything else. 

Most politicians would hate to be associated with known felons, but these are showing quite intimate connections to Davis - including political and fundraising ties.

The Detroit News: Lawyer for Davis seeks probation, home confinement

One can only hope that Judge Tarnow will instead make the sentence appropriate to Davis' brazen theft and breach of the public trust.  Instead of the insane request for probation he should make him an example so that the Democrat Detroit Corruption train finally begins to come to a halt.

More Michigan Democrat-Run Cities Running Out Of Other People's Money

A few more Michigan local governments are running out of other people's money. Now it's Highland Park's and Royal Oak Township's turn to face possible emergency management.

The Detroit News: Two Metro Detroit communities push back against state intervention

I've noted the odd case of Royal Oak Township before. Indeed the township has been in a tailspin since before 2009. A half mile township with some of the highest tax rates in the state that has taxed itself out of existence causing businesses to flee while paying its bureaucrats very well indeed. Of course, having many of the bureaucrats involved in corruption didn't help much either.

Now it seems that the state will take some action but the Royal Oak Township response seems to be a rather unacceptable excuse:

officials from the tiny half-square-mile township nestled along Eight Mile between Oak Park and Ferndale did not dispute their state review team’s findings, but blamed the township’s shrinking tax base and decisions by past officials for its financial woes.

In other words, we're not viable, but its not our fault that even with some ridiculously high tax rates and special assessments for police services, still can't even pay the bill for police protection.

It's long past time that Royal Oak Township closed up and was absorbed by a neighboring city. The problem is, will any city nearby actually want to take on the costs of recovering this wreck and shining example of decades of Democrat one-party misrule?