Posted on 09/21/2014 2:24:32 PM PDT by walford
DETROIT – In a recent Detroit Free Press op-ed, University of California-Berkeley Professor Robert Reich places the blame for the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy on the “mostly white” residents of Oakland County.
Detroit-in-ruins-15“But Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they would otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans,” Reich wrote. “ … But one thing is for certain: A very large and prosperous group close by won’t sacrifice a cent — the mostly white citizens of neighboring Oakland County.”
The reaction of one Oakland County official was that Reich, a former U.S. Secretary of Labor, didn’t know much about his chosen topic.
“That piece is clearly misinformed,” said Robert Daddow, Oakland County deputy county executive. “He doesn’t understand what he is talking about.”
By all accounts, the state and Oakland County are major stakeholders in Detroit. Here’s some things Reich overlooked about how county and state taxpayers help fund Detroit.
No. 1: People who work in the city but live elsewhere — such as Oakland County — pay a city income tax. That income tax for non-residents is 1.2 percent, compared to the 2.4 percent that residents of Detroit pay. The city income tax brings in $248 million and accounts for 19.2 percent of the city’s revenue.
No. 2: Detroit has a special deal with casino revenues. There are 22 other cities in Michigan that have casinos operating within their boundaries, but Detroit is the only city that can collect a “wagering tax” from casinos. That amounted to $181.4 million in 2012, or 13.5 percent of the city’s revenue. Many of those bets, undoubtedly, were placed by Oakland County residents.
No. 3: Detroit is budgeted to receive $140.5 million in money taken from sales tax revenue that is collected from residents all across the state — including Oakland County — in the form of revenue sharing, which will account for 14.1 percent of the city’s revenue in fiscal 2015.
No. 4: Oakland County and its residents financially support several things that help the region, including the city of Detroit. Oakland County taxpayers voted to support a three-county millage that goes to fund the Detroit Zoo, which is located within Oakland County in the city of Huntington Woods, as well as a millage for the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Oakland County has also given $500,000 a year to Automation Alley for the past 14 years. Automation Alley is a technology business association that supports that industry, including businesses and institutions located in the city of Detroit.
” escape the costs of public goods they would otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans,”?
It’s not my responsibility to pay for the care of my darker fellow Americans.
So he’s saying colored people can’t do anything on their own except destroy their own towns??? His true colors show...Racist!!!!
Let us look at the evidence shall we...
* It is run by Republican L Brooks Patterson.
* L Brooks, has no problem spiking the ball in the In-Zone everytime Detroit messes up, or he has a victory as a County over Wayne County, not the most magnanimous thing to do, but that is L Brooks.
* L Brooks is a radical innovator. They have a AAA Muni Bond rating, one of a few in the nation because in the mid 90's he got his Union employees to go along with Health Savings Accounts and a cousin of the 401k, the 401a
* Brooks I think was a big proponent of and got a Exposition Center which is a Direct Competitor of any major arena in Detroit, go here for a looksee of what it is http://suburbancollectionshowplace.com/
*It is gorgeous with free parking
* This Showcase gets venues and conventions that Detroit can only dream of, and it must piss them off royally that they do not have a monopoly for such events.
Gee ya think that it may have to do with Conservative Concepts and their success vs. the Left's idea's and their implementation and Dr. Reich is using race as a smoke screen to cover the fact that their ideas / execution and dysfunctionality is really the root cause of their ills?
Soon to arrive self-driving cars are in the news but self-flying airplanes are next. These will enable middle class families to live triple the distance from the nearest dirty, noisy, crime-ridden, drug infested, Democrat voting city work hub. Adjusting for speed differences, travel by airplane is the most energy efficient mode of transportation ever invented.
pingaling
So the people’s who’s parents and grandparents left big D because it sucked are to blame for it sucking, because they don’t live there, and they don’t have to pay (more than they already do pay, which sounds like a lot) for the upkeep of a place in which they don’t live?
Sounds like Robbert “the third” Reich has been smoking too much of that fine De-triot crack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ_Nk6S6H38t live?
Sounds like Robbert
But Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they’d otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans
( Sep 9, 2014 Salon ) Robert Reich: Housing segregation destroyed Detroit
That was an informed but counter-productive response from Oakland County. By responding the way they did, they had a defensive posture. It would be nice for a change to go on offense and put all of Detroit’s problems around the necks of people who caused them: professives (like Reisch) and their messed up ideas.
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