Our favorite needle in the side of the city administration, Auditor General Joe Harris, says all the talk about Detroit being penniless is nonsense. In his annual budget address, delivered to City Council last week, Harris reported that next year the city expects to collect $1 billion, the second-highest revenue take in the city’s history. The real problem, he said, isn’t lack of funds. It’s inefficiency and wasteful spending.
“Unless the city reduces its cost of operations, we will not only be unable to invest in our future, we will watch our infrastructure continue to deteriorate, find it necessary to continue to reduce city services and continue to provide inadequate equipment to our agencies,” Harris reported.
Or, considering our mayor’s close ties with the supreme being, he could simply request a little extra manna be deposited into city coffers.
Lisa M. Collins is a Metro Times staff writer. Send comments to [email protected]This article appears in May 1-7, 2002.
