Wayne County On the Mend, Challenges Remain: State of the County

DETROIT, MI – Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans touted sacrifices from employees and retirees to overcome the county’s steep financial challenges, including an underfunded pension system and declining tax revenues, in his first State of the County address Tuesday.

The county isn’t out of the woods, he said, but is headed in the right direction with a general fund balance that’s in the black, Evans said.

Evans, who made his remarks at the Detroit Film Theatre, said the county hasn’t finished a fiscal year in the black in eight years.

A financial emergency declaration and consent agreement with the state last summer allowed the county to avoid a state appointed emergency manager and bankruptcy, but gave Evans the same authority as an emergency manager would have had in contract talks with the county’s unions.

As a result, health-care costs have been cut to $471 million from $1.3 billion. Without action, the liability would have been $1.8 billion at the end of 2015.

When Evans took office in January 2015, Wayne County had a $52 million annual deficit, stemming both from the underfunded pension system that required the county to take about $20 million a year from the general fund, and a $100 million drop in property tax revenues.

Evans said he plans to convene elected officials, community leaders, economists, business leaders and others to discuss alternatives to funding local government solely with property taxes, a system he said is “broken.”

“Our system of funding local governments threatens the financial stability of counties and local municipalities,” he said. “We cannot continue to underfund local governments. We need to start down the road to a solution.”

The Detroit News has more, but you can also read Evans’ prepared remarks below.