California resident and one-time Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm took to Twitter last night to say some peppy, happy things about Detroit.
Bankruptcy is tough, you guys, but don't worry because Granholm says Detroit WILL rise again.
Well, I feel better now. How about you?
It's easy to take shots at people offering pep-talky coaching like this, but Granholm's rhetorical saccharine is particularly obnoxious because Detroit's problems were really exacerbated during her tenure.
State government approves municipal budgets and it was Granholm's treasury department that initially OK'ed Detroit's use of long-term bonds to pay for short-term expenses in 2005. It was under Granholm that Detroit withered under the stress of de-industrialization and the housing meltdown. As a slow statewide economy shrank revenues, she (reasonably enough) cut the revenue-sharing payments to local government including Detroit.
Some of these things weren't Granholm's fault -- she didn't write crap mortgages sell them off in CDOs -- but Lansing should have been pushing Detroit to make tough but necessary fiscal choices a decade ago. Instead, Team Granholm did nothing.
Her Detroit policy was clearly informed by Gov. Jim Blanchard's 1990 defeat. Feuding with Blanchard, Coleman Young sat on his hands during that governor's race. The low Detroit turnout aided John Engler's victory. So afraid of suffering a Blanchard-like political fate her policy toward Detroit could be best described as placating the city's politicians at all costs, even the best interests of Detroiters.
If Detroit had been forced to produce budgets without reckless long-term borrowing, if Lansing pushed for and facilitated shared service and consolidation agreements between Detroit other troubled communities like Hamtramck and Highland Park, if the underfunding and mismanagement of pensions funds had been addressed, if Detroit's leaders were forced to deal with the city's systemic issues in 2005 or 2006 or 2007, bankruptcy might have been avoided.
At least, an earlier intervention would have meant a less painful bankruptcy and emergency management.
Instead problems festered and grew.
Detroit could have benefited from a governor who saw leadership as more than an exercise in political expediency, but that's water under the bridge now and the city doesn't need a pep talk.
Enjoy that California sunshine, governor. And leave Detroit the hell alone.
