[Don Corleone]

As agent Maxwell Smart was won’t to say,”Missed it by that much.”

[Fido969]

Well, if they just increase the property taxes by 10 times, they’ll have a surplus...

[KarlInOhio]

Maybe we can just move the US-Canada border a few miles to the north (yes, Canada is south of Detroit) one night like leaving a very ugly baby on Canada’s doorstep. Of course, that could be considered an act of war.

[painter]

I read a story I think here about someone who bought an abandoned house in Detroit for a couple bucks. It was the only house left standing on the block. He figured he could spend a fair amount fixing it up and have a nice house cheap in his own quiet neighbor hood.

THEN he got the bill for the PAST due property taxes. It was tens of thousands of dollars! The guy basically said the hell with this and walked away!

If I was mayor there and had the city counsel on my side here is how I would at least try to fix this problem.

I would have another property tax sale in which ALL past due property taxes are wiped CLEAN. That is on ANY abandoned property. That includes old factories. Anyone buying an abandoned house gets a big discount on taxes until they are finished "fixing" the place up then a discount for 5 years as long as they live there. If you buy several empty lots around the house you pay taxes on a rate for farmland. I think you would start a new land rush and revive the place.

[taildragger]

“It's a combination of many factors,” said Bill Nowling, spokesman for Orr. “Clearly, collections is an issue, but so it is the assessment process itself. In many cases, the city is carrying assessments for properties that are blighted or abandoned and those amounts go into making up that $55 million number.”

A while back, the Detroit News did a story of who are the biggest employers in Detroit. It was GM, Chrysler, the Hospitals but mainly the Public Sector jobs may have been the biggest. One question related to this is do these employed folks even live in Detroit? The total number of these large employers was no where near the 700,000 residence which rings true, with the data out their that up to 70% of the residents maybe on various forms of assistance. IF they are on assistance, are their Landlords paying their property taxes?

Tell me how this all works if Detroit comes out of bankruptcy and has 1/10 the revenue they projected? How does it survive?

Not good....

[Wingy]

Quick! Someone call the UN. They made the city give their water away for free, so why not give all the city services away for free? What? Me worry?

[House Atreides]

ANYONE who lends money to or buys a municipal bond or ANY municipality, county and/or state run by DemocRATS is out-of-their financial mind and needs to understand they are likely to eventually lose most or all of their “investment”.

The “investor” also needs to understand that the government employee overlords’ pensions and benefits will be protected above all else.

[SeaHawkFan]

At this rate, third-world countries will start sending donations to Detroit.