High unemployment and a modestly educated workforce present a tough challenge. A push to attract highly skilled immigrants may boost job hopes.
Detroit Journalism Cooperative
Posted inUrban Affairs
Benchmark: Schools
Decades of reform have failed to boost student learning in Detroit’s struggling public schools. Will improved teacher training help?
Posted inUrban Affairs
Benchmark: Livability
What makes a city appealing can’t always be measured: Community spirit. Inviting parks. A vibrant cultural scene. Now, if only leaders could do something about Detroit’s insurance and tax rates.
Posted inUrban Affairs
Editor's note: Introducing the Detroit Journalism Cooperative
Michigan’s most trusted nonprofit news organizations are joining forces to produce data-driven journalism on Detroit’s financial crisis – and the road ahead.
Posted inUrban Affairs
Cutting spending and increasing revenue won’t be easy for Detroit without more jobs and taxes
Michigan Radio is teaming up with a handful of other media outlets to look at Detroit’s bankruptcy and its aftermath. The Detroit Journalism Cooperative will spend the next year exploring Detroit’s future and what it means for the state. To successfully emerge from bankruptcy, Detroit has to find ways to cut spending and increase revenue. […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
State neglect has worsened communities' legacy-cost crisis
Jacqueline Noonan is mayor of Utica and president of the Michigan Municipal League Board of Trustees. Bridge Magazine’s recent series examining unfunded municipal pension and health care costs was indeed “fairly terrifying,” as one of the stories concluded. But also terrifying are four directly related issues that went largely uncovered by the stories. First, the […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
A steady job, with fewer perks
Tim Bradshaw knew he was entering a working world much different from that of his parents when he accepted a job more than 2 years ago with the City of Kentwood. Unlike many of his older coworkers, he would not earn credit toward a guaranteed monthly retirement check, and “my wife and I just assume […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
You’re the Mayor
Tell us how cities can reduce worker retirement costs So you’ve read Bridge’s fairly terrifying report about how Michigan cities and towns have failed to fund employees’ pension and health-care plans, sometimes ignoring the problem for decades. The result: billions of dollars in unfunded retirement obligations across the state. Add to that crumbling infrastructure, dwindling […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Two cities that took control of retiree costs
They are the exceptions, but leaders in a handful of Michigan cities and towns foresaw the financial crisis that would overwhelm their communities if they didn’t begin setting aside enough money to pay the pensions and health insurance they promised workers when they retired. “It took about 10 years to figure this out,” said Eric […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Oakland County proposes legacy solution
Not long after Robert Daddow came to work for Oakland County 20 years ago, a couple of elected officials suggested the county should stop setting aside money for its retirees’ health insurance. No law required Michigan’s local governments to prefund the health care plans promised to retirees, so why pay for something now that you […]