The Detroit Budget Debacle

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the Detroit Common Council have certainly agreed on one thing: to disagree, and to do so stridently. Mayor Bing ended talks on the City's budget when the Council did not agree to his plan, asserting that the body was not earnest in seeking compromise. Council President Charles Pugh responded that the Mayor was being childish. The action by Detroit's leader would allow him to make cuts of his own beginning Friday.

It would seem that Mr. Bing is trying to establish himself as a leader by acting so seemingly decisively. He is certainly painting an apocalyptic picture: a loss of police and fire protection, parks grass uncut, a loss of Sunday bus service and Hart Plaza festivals. Hopefully it is little more than posturing.

The underlying problem here is that we are witnessing yet another black eye to Detroit when that is exactly what we can least afford right now. The city government can't see eye to eye, and residents continue to leave in response. Why shouldn't they? What is the incentive to stay? Certainly not the amount of intrigue and infighting witnessed over the last decade.

There is still time, and cooler heads may prevail. It is not likely (is it?) that things will be as catastrophic as Mayor Bing asserts. Political posturing has been around since the founding of the Republic, and there should be no shock that it exists even in the relative backwaters which are Detroit today.

That is perhaps the best way to sum the situation up: Detroit is becoming irrelevant, to the state, and perhaps even to itself. It is said the phoenix shall rise from the ashes. Yet how much ash must be made before the process burns itself out?