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| Wayne County officials abandoned the old county building in downtown Detroit five years ago. |
The Macomb Daily hired a publisher about a decade ago who
came to the paper from Canada and he quickly and aggressively pushed us to
write about the insanely ineffective means by which local governments operate
within the state of Michigan.
Reporters tried to explain that local control – down to
very small geographies – is a tradition that goes back to the establishment of
the Northwest Territory and the creation of 6 mile X 6 mile townships across
the state. But the publisher, who hailed from the Toronto area, where regional
government rules, insisted that mass consolidation of local units of government
was obviously necessary.
budget deficits and huge cuts to revenue sharing with communities, consolidation
became a subject of frequent public debate. Despite his arrogance on the
subject, the man had a point.
You have a village, within a township, within a county,
he would say. And within that county you have 21 school districts, some of which
are only the size of a few square miles. What sense does that make?
So, a decade later, after some efforts south of Eight
Mile Road to consolidate Detroit and Wayne County services, the Motor City
finds itself on the road to recovery after emerging from bankruptcy. But now,
Wayne County is in such dire straits, driving on fumes, that it is seeking to
declare a financial emergency.
frequent newspaper columnist, wrote a piece nearly three years ago, before
Detroit had started to turn the corner, that called for the city to cut all
ties with Wayne County.
In a Sept. 21, 2012, Op-Ed written for The Detroit News,
Lennox suggested that freeing Detroit residents and businesses from WayneCounty taxes would be good for the Motor City’s economy.
Here’s a portion of what Lennox wrote in 2012:
exist within Detroit.
“It makes no sense for taxpayers to fund a county government that
provides almost no unique services to those who reside within the
city. Freeing the city from the county will result in significant
savings to Detroit’s taxpayers.
“To improve the governance of Detroit, which would empower innovators,
job creators, entrepreneurs and even foreign investors, government in
Detroit and Wayne County must be wiped clean and started anew.
“A radical reform such as this one will require a leader willing to put
politics aside to do the right thing.”
I have no idea what legalities come into play if Detroit wanted to become a
separate entity (or emerge as an 84th Michigan county) but I suppose some key
county services (the jail, the circuit court) could continue within the city under
a contract arrangement.
Now that Wayne County has admitted it cannot make amends
for its transgressions of the past, maybe a divorce by Detroit will enter the
discussion.
