A state role in steering Detroit budgets and union contracts will reach beyond Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's 18-month term.
Lansing appointees will oversee the city's recovery from bankruptcy, The Detroit News reports.
Gov. Rick Snyder is making plans for an oversight board to keep tabs on Detroit’s finances for years to come after the city exits bankruptcy.
The new emergency manager law allows the governor to keep a Receivership Transition Advisory Board in place to approve all budgets and collective bargaining agreements. . . . The advisory board would serve at the governor’s pleasure or until a future administration removes them.
Snyder spoke about that prospect to Dustin Walsh of Crain's Detroit Business earlier this week, saying he'll appoint the board next summer.
The board . . . can require the city to provide monthly cash flow projections and approve proposed budgets and budget amendments, among other things.
The governor can also receive a report from that board at a time of his choosing, and if that report shows the financial conditions of the city have not improved, the governor can appoint a new emergency manager.
"The governor is always thinking ahead and wants to make sure there’s a solid transition plan in place,” spokeswoman Sara Wurfel told Chad Livengood, a state capital reporter for The News.
The transition advisory board is a new feature to the emergency manager law that took effect in March, replacing a law voters repealed last November.
Board members would include the state treasurer or a representative of that office, the state budget office director or an assistant and private sector experts. One or more Detroit residents also could be appointed, Walsh reports in Crain's.
