25 Facts About The Fall Of Detroit That Will Leave You Shaking Your Head By Michael Snyder, on July 20th, 2013 It is so sad to watch one of America’s greatest cities die a horrible death. Once upon a time, the city of Detroit was a teeming metropolis of 1.8 million people and it had the highest per capita income in the United States. Now it is a rotting, decaying hellhole of about 700,000 people that the rest of the world makes jokes about. On Thursday, we learned that the decision had been made for the city of Detroit to formally file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. 1) At this point, the city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors. 2) Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities. 3) Back in 1960, the city of Detroit actually had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation. 4) In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit. 5) Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost. 14) There are 70 “Superfund” hazardous waste sites in Detroit.
Michigan Minimum Wage Rate 2014 - Minimum-Wage.org The minimum wage is $7.40 per hour for most employees in Michigan, with exceptions for tipped employees, some student workers, and other exempt occupations.[1] Michigan's minimum wage applies to any company that employs two or more employees over 16 years old. Two notable exceptions allow minors to be paid under the Michigan minimum wage - one allows minors aged 16-17 to be paid 85% of the minimum wage indefinitely ($7.25), and the second allows any employee under 20 years of age to be paid as little as $4.25 for the first 90 days of employment at any job. Michigan employers may not pay you under $7.40 per hour unless you or your occupation are specifically exempt from the minimum wage under state or federal law. In his 2014 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called on Congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, and promised to raise the minimum wage for federal workers to $10.10 via executive order. Michigan wage data last updated June 2011 [citation]
Anatomy of Detroit’s Decline - Interactive Feature Mayor Coleman A. Young of Detroit at an event in 1980. Richard Sheinwald/Associated Press The financial crisis facing Detroit was decades in the making, caused in part by a trail of missteps, suspected corruption and inaction. Charles E. Edward Jeffries, who served as mayor from 1940 to 1948, developed the Detroit Plan, which involved razing 100 blighted acres and preparing the land for redevelopment. Albert Cobo was considered a candidate of the wealthy and of the white during his tenure from 1950 to 1957. Coleman A. Kwame M. Dave Bing, a former professional basketball star, took office in 2009 pledging to solve Detroit’s fiscal problems, which by then were already overwhelming. Related Mark Schauer calls for raising Michigan's minimum wage to $9.25 Democrat Mark Schauer is proposing to raise Michigan's minimum wage to $9.25 an hour over three years and automatically tie future increases to inflation, saying he would make hiking the $7.40 wage a top priority if elected governor next year. Gov. Rick Snyder, who is likely to face Schauer in the 2014 election, told reporters in Lansing today such a change “would be a challenge.” "We are better than having people work full time and live in poverty, especially when they're raising kids," he told the Associated Press, which was briefed on Schauer's plan before he planned to unveil it outside a Detroit bakery this morning. The state's minimum wage last went up in 2008 and is slightly higher than the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Schauer said a $9.25 per hourly rate would give low-wage workers the same buying power as 1968, which he said is when the minimum wage had its highest purchasing power. "This is about simple economics," Schauer said.
Detroit Public Schools Budget: Cuts, Cuts, Cuts This story has been updated. Detroit Public Schools officials released the district's proposed 2012 budget Thursday, a plan rife with cuts and changes. All DPS employees will take a 10 percent salary hit in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012, and, like public workers throughout Michigan, will be expected to contribute more to their benefits plan. Language about recruiting new teachers stresses hiring from external pools such as Teach for America. Beyond the pay cuts, the district is also eliminating 853 positions, reducing its head count by roughly 8.5 percent. According to the district, the cuts are part of a plan to streamline education and reroute 90 percent of funding to the classroom. Mounting debt has crippled Detroit Public Schools, with the district's current deficit reaching $327 million. “We must create and maintain an organization that totally accepts its responsibility for making this the top rate school district that it can be.
Kristin S. Seefeldt: How to Fight Poverty in Detroit Many journalists, artists and academics have put Detroit in the spotlight in recent years through depictions of abandoned homes and other landmarks like the old Packard Plant and Michigan Central Station. Unfortunately, the 700,000 residents of Detroit, especially the poor, remain in the shadows. In fact, the poor throughout the country are being ignored by both political parties. As memories of the Great Recession of 2007-09 fade for many American and their elected officials, little attention is focused on how to help the low income families being left behind as the economy slowly recovers. For a city like Detroit, with high levels of concentrated poverty, even when the national economy is booming, such negligence threatens the next generation. We have been studying how the economic crisis and slow recovery have affected residents in Southeast Michigan and poor families in Detroit in particular. What needs to be done? Kristin S.
Division of Finance - Detroit Public Schools DPS is focused on creating a culture of excellence that permeates our system of schools. To do that, we are creating and maintaining an organization that totally accepts its responsibility for making DPS a top-rate school district. That begins with the budget, which is fiscally sound, balanced and focused on driving resources where they are most impactful—to our classrooms and our students. About our finances The FY 2015 Detroit Public Schools Proposed Budget contains Summaries of Expenditures including an overview of uses of monies for personnel, purchased services, supplies and materials, capital equipment, utilities, debt services, and transfers and other expenditures. It also includes Summaries of Revenues and Fund Appropriations including the General Purpose Fund, Adult Education Fund, State and Federal Grant Funds, Special Education Program Funds, Consolidated Funds, Food Service Fund and Capital Funds. Proposed Budget for the 2014–15 Fiscal Year Resources
Detroit Institute Of Arts Fate Still Unknown After City Determined Bankrupt Detroit's unprecedented bankruptcy is bound to have long-lasting implications for residents, creditors and other cities. But after Detroit was found eligible for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protections Tuesday, culture-conscious folks were concerned with one of the other affected parties -- the Detroit Institute of Arts, where the city-owned collection of private art remains in jeopardy. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes ruled Tuesday that the city, which has long-term debts estimated at over $18 billion, was eligible for bankruptcy, but did not rule on whether selling DIA art would be permitted. After the ruling, the museum issued a statement saying they support state-appointed Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's "efforts to address the City's current financial crisis." "The DIA hopes that Judge Rhodes' ruling today, which confirms that the City is eligible to proceed in its Chapter 9 bankruptcy case, will lead to a quicker and more effective resolution of the crisis," they said.