Detroit mayor travels to Lansing to discuss city’s fiscal crisis with state lawmakers

Bing discusses fiscal crisis with Mich. lawmakers

LANSING, Mich. — Detroit Mayor Dave Bing got a warm welcome from lawmakers Tuesday as he discussed Detroit’s financial troubles and tried to build a more cooperative relationship between the state’s largest city and state government.

“The reception has been very positive. … I’ve been well-received,” said Bing, who last month won a four-year term after serving as interim mayor.

The former businessman would like lawmakers to raise the cap on the amount of fiscal stabilization bonds the city can sell from $125 million to $250 million. Sen. Tupac Hunter and Rep. George Cushingberry, both Detroit Democrats, were to introduce legislation on the bonds Tuesday.

But Bing said his visits to the Senate Republican and Democratic caucuses in the morning and the House GOP and Democratic caucuses in the afternoon weren’t about the possible sale of the 20-year bonds, which would be backed by Detroit’s state revenue sharing payments.

They were about getting acquainted and building relationships with lawmakers.

“I am sure, as we move forward, there will be some disappointments, there will be some disagreements, there will be some difficulties,” he told reporters during a Capitol news conference. “But I think as we go forward … they’re going to become very, very important in some of the decisions that will be made in terms of how to help Detroit come back.”

The city is facing a deficit of more than $300 million, and Bing said he knows Detroit will be getting less in state revenue sharing money than in the past. He said he’d consider options to selling bonds to close the deficit, but so far hasn’t gotten any specific suggestions. The Detroit City Council has approved selling the bonds if lawmakers go along.

The Democratic mayor said he was trying to bring a different approach to working with lawmakers than city leaders have had in the past.

“It’s not all going to be about Detroit,” he said. “That day is gone.”

He said lawmakers in both parties understand that “we’re at a very crucial point for the city of Detroit” and that most want to help.

The city is still recovering from the scandal-plagued administration of Bing’s predecessor, Kwame Kilpatrick, and struggling to get its schools back on track after years of bad management and corruption.

The city’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate in September, the most recent month available, was 27.9 percent, nearly twice Michigan’s highest-in-the-nation rate of 15.1 percent. General Motors Co., whose headquarters building dominates the skyline of downtown Detroit, is fighting back from bankruptcy at a fraction of its former size.

Bing’s administration says it has saved nearly $17 million by cutting jobs and more than $11 million by turning over the operation of the city’s aging downtown convention center to a regional board.

But the mayor, who shared sandwiches Tuesday over lunch with Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and met later with Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon, said the city still has a long way to go.

“We have to do a lot in the city ourselves to cut costs, to control costs,” he said. “I do believe most people understand how important Detroit is to the state.”