The Motor City is getting ready to motor some of its workers right out of their jobs and into the unemployment line. Dave Bing, the current Mayor of Detroit, recently made an announcement of some grim news: the city is getting ready to lay off about 1000 of its workers in order to stay solvent. The city says that if they do not make these job cuts than the city will have seriously consider declaring bankruptcy.

Now, for the interesting part of the story. While many cities are looking at layoffs as their first, last and only choice the City Council for Detroit is considering a second option, one that is much more ambitious, but could leave the city without several public services. The plan includes the following measures:

- Closing all of the city’s recreation centers.
- Making cuts to the police and firefighter’s budgets. (Specifics were not discussed, but staff reduction could also be included in this part of the plan.)
- Selling off parking lots owned by the city to private companies that can make a profit off of the parking fees.
- Eliminating all of the subsidies to local museums as well as to the Detroit Zoo.

The members of the city council were well aware of the fact that the cuts could have a real impact on the quality of life for their residents, but stressed that these changes were truly needed in order to keep the city from running out of money by April. The city council’s President Pro Tem, Gary Brown, told the following to a local reporter about the cuts, “These actions are difficult, but in order to repair our finances, retain most of the positions, maintain local control of our city and set the stage for the future, bold moves must be made.”

You may be wondering why it is that the city has decided to take such a drastic approach to the budget problems it faces? The reason is simple. The city is hoping to avoid intervention by the state. If the city cannot solve its own problems there is a very real chance that Rick Snyder, the states governor, will appoint an emergency manager to come in and handle the situation. They are also hoping to keep from having to declare bankruptcy.

While the plan may be fiscally sound it does have one little legal loophole. In order to get it going they have to get the plan approved either by the governor himself or by the mayor. Since the mayor has a competing plan he may not be willing to talk about approving the plan. As a matter of fact, he has already been dropping hints that he is not likely to go with the councils plan.

He had this to say about the council members plan to a local reporter, “I think City Council needs to understand that they are the legislative part of this administration. For those of them who want to be mayor, they should have run for mayor.”

Layoff notices will go out in the month of January.