How to Pay for More Cops?

A few days ago I asked a question in the comment section. How you fund Flint police at their current pay and benefits packages and balance the budget, without increasing the retirement pay out so a mayor down the line has to deal with the cost? More than 70 percent of the general fund is dedicated to public safety. Not sure how you put more cops on the street with their current pay and benefits, continue to do things like pick up the garbage and mow the grass, and balance the budget. Without raising taxes on an economically devastated city. (Please note that I'm not taking a stand on the current labor battle between the mayor and public safety unions; I'm looking for actual answers to solve this dilemma.)

I got a few responses. On the micro level, anonymous suggests:

Privatize garbage. City will become a stinking landfill, but you'll theoretically have a few more cops. Make police pay scale the highest possible pay scale. Noone in city hall makes more than a cop with the same years of service. including the mayor. you'll have a few more cops. Shutter/sell/dismantle atwood. sad but time. play ball games at northwestern n swa. maybe get a few more cops out of that, it might be deeded or something tho so maybe not. and outside of a select few (like a handful), pull up the signs from the city parks and end what minimal maintenance is done on them. nature parks now. squeeze a cop or two out of those savings. beg, plead and steal federal law enforcement assistance. still not enough? sorry, all i got.

JWilly offers up a big-picture solution:

Everyone knows the problem is driven by drug marketing. Everyone knows that Flint can't afford to manage ongoing petty crime, and has no constitutionally permissible tools to do anything about drug marketing. The suburbs prefer to keep their money and pretend the problem doesn't affect them. The state prefers to think of the problem as local and simply a matter of managerial and taxpayer choices. The feds by and large ignore the problem. Over the years the CIA and friends have even been involved in drug distribution in a number of ways, and the feds have used drug profits to extra-nationally fund various activities.

Nothing will be fixed until the feds make ending drug marketing a national goal, and formulate a practical plan that doesn't involve interdicting individual mules or processing labs or plants.

One way to do that would be to bioengineer hardy, persistent genetic-attack vectors for the plant precursors for cocaine and heroin, and broadcast them in cultivable areas.

Much of the world would be outraged at our transgressing various nations' sovereignty in the process, and hurting poor farm families. We'd have to be led by someone that was willing to say, "tough $%@&...deal with it."

I'd love to hear some more ideas.

What Do Flint and Grand Rapids Have in Common?

Why can't Flint get its act together? The budget deficits, the bad streets, the talk of increased taxes and, of course, the layoffs really make the place look bad compared to other cities. Why can't Flint be more like, say, Grand Rapids? I mean there's a city that knows how to live within its means without begging for cash from the state and federal government! With hard work and thrift, Grand Rapids has managed to...oh, wait. Never mind.

Jim Harger of The Grand Rapids Press reports:

Faced with yet another year of budget cutting, the City Commission vowed Tuesday to renew efforts to pry more money out of Lansing.

But as City Manager Greg Sundstrom laid out his latest budget request, no commissioner offered a solution to the pension and health-care costs that are expected to continue rising in the future.

"This remains a fundamental structural problem that we simply have to find a way to get around," Mayor George Heartwell said.

Sundstrom told commissioners the budget he is proposing for the fiscal year starting July 1 assumes voters will approve a city income tax increase May 4 that will raise $7.5 million.

The spending plan also assumes commissioners will create a street lighting fee, reduce the personal income tax exemption from $750 to $600, and tighten enforcement of overdue parking tickets.

Layoffs at Flint Truck Assembly Plant

"General Motors told almost 400 Flint Truck Assembly Plant workers this morning that their jobs on a commercial truck line here will be eliminated July 31, a crushing blow to Genesee County's only remaining assembly plant," reports Ron Fonger of The Flint Journal.

G.M. Announces Cuts and Closures

Here's a list of the plants and facilities affected by G.M.'s "accelerated manufacturing plan to improve capacity utilization and flexibility." (Perhaps they can find some PR flaks who write a bit better during the bankruptcy.)

June 1, 2009 U.S. GM Manufacturing Optimization Plan Actions

Plant	Status / Timing (date listed or sooner depending on market demand)
Assembly
Orion, Mich.	Standby Capacity - September 2009
Pontiac, Mich.	Close - October 2009
Spring Hill, Tenn.	Standby Capacity - November 2009
Wilmington, Del.	Close - July 2009
Stamping
Grand Rapids, Mich.	Close - June 2009 (previously announced)
Indianapol, Ind.	Close - December 2011
Mansfield, Ohio	Close - June 2010
Pontiac, Mich.	Standby Capacity - December 2010
Powertrain
Livonia Engine, Mich.	Close - June 2010
Flint North Components, Mich.	Close - December 2010
Willow Run Site, Mich.	Close - December 2010
Parma Components, Ohio	Close - December 2010
Fredericksburg Components, Virg.	Close - December 2010
Massena Castings, N.Y.	Closed - May 1, 2009 (previously announced)
Service & Parts Operations (SPO) Warehousing & Parts Distribution Centers
Boston, Mass.	Close – December 31, 2009
Jacksonville, Fla.	Close – December 31, 2009
Columbus, Ohio	Close – December 31, 2009

Auto Industry in Motion

GM is instituting mandatory summer "vacation" at 13 plants, and Chrysler seems destined for bankruptcy.

Is the Flint Journal in a Death Spiral?

Freefromeditors, a blog that's been a font of insider dope in the past, has some unhappy news about the fate of The Flint Journal — layoffs, mandatory salary and benefit cuts, and a paper that only comes out three days a week.

Collared by the Economy

After years of blue-collar job cuts, the economic crisis is exacting a toll on white-collar workers, especially in Michigan.

Bill Vlasic and Nick Bunkley of The New York Times report:

"G.M., Ford and Chrysler have eliminated a total of 120,000 manufacturing jobs in the last three years. And now the cuts are drastically thinning the ranks of white-collar professionals, turning the once-bustling office towers of the companies into half-empty monuments to better days.

"G.M. delivered another blow last week when it said it would reduce its global salaried work force by 14 percent, or 10,000 workers this year. In the Detroit area, that could mean an additional 3,000 workers will be out of a job by May 1. G.M.’s next round of white-collar cuts will not include buyouts. Chrysler has not said whether it plans more cuts.

"The Detroit area housing market, already deeply depressed, has plummeted since the buyouts. In January, the foreclosure rate increased 102 percent from the same month a year earlier in Oakland County, Mich., home to a huge number of G.M. and Chrysler employees.

"The state’s unemployment rate was 10.6 percent in December and continues to climb. Job fairs routinely create mob scenes, drawing thousands of out-of-work employees of the Big Three and their suppliers."

Layoffs in Flint

General Motors shut down the Flint Truck Assembly Plant on Friday after an auto parts supplier went out on strike.