As a decision nears by Gov. Rick Snyder on an emergency manager for Detroit, the opposition is growing.
Mayoral candidates, the city council and the NAACP have spoken out in the past two days, saying state officials have exaggerated the fiscal crisis facing the city and concluding there is no need for an emergency manager.
Matt Helms in the Free Pres reports two Detroit mayoral candidates have accused the state and its review team that declared the city to be in a financial emergency of deliberately inflating the city's debts to make the case for appointing an emergency financial manager.
Lisa Howze, a former state representative and certified public accountant, presented Wednesday her analysis of Detroit's finances. She said Detroit's immediate debts and liabilities amount to about $2 billion, a figure she said is manageable without an emergency financial manager usurping elected local control of the city.
Also in the Free Press, Joe Guillen writes the Detroit City Council has been advised to push for another consent agreement with the state to fix the city's financial crisis rather than the state appointment of an emergency financial manager, according to a report jointly issued by two council departments.
The report, given to the council Friday and obtained by the Free Press, calls into question certain findings that a state review team reached last week that concluded Detroit is in a financial emergency without a plan to fix itself.
On Tuesday, Detroit's NAACP branch similarly told Snyder the city could handle its own rescue, according to Darren Nichols in the Detroit News. Webdell Anthony, the NAACP president, said once Snyder names an emergency manager, all of Detroit is the governor's responsibility.
