State Review Panel Releases Findings on Wayne County Finances

Wayne County is in a financial emergency, a five-member state review team said Tuesday.

The announcement follows County Executive Warren Evans’ request for a financial emergency declaration last month. The declaration and consent agreement give Evans the latitude he needs to impose $230 million benefit cuts over four years, spelled out in his recovery plan.

The county is wrestling with a $52 million structural deficit, stemming in part from a substantially underfunded pension system and dwindling tax revenues, down about$100 million annually since 2008. The county’s estimated deficit is $150 million.

Related:

• Wayne County Exec Seeks Financial Emergency Declaration
• State Responds to Request for Wayne County Financial Emergency
• It’s Not Good’: Wayne County’s Financial Hole Deeper than Thought
• Wayne County Executive Orders Spending Freeze

The review team announced its findings hours after Evans told members of the Detroit City Council that although Wayne County has financial issues requiring immediate attention, the county isn’t on a path to emergency management or bankruptcy, The Detroit News reports.

“We’re working very hard to get this budget situation straightened out,” Evans told council members Tuesday morning. “There is no way I would foresee Wayne County needing an emergency manager or bankruptcy at this point.”

AFSCME Council 25 president Al Garrett told the Detroit Free Press he thinks the process was rushed. The review team still had more than a month to make its recommendations, he said.

“One has to wonder how thorough it is or are they just going through the motions? My fear is that this whole process is one that’s been rushed,” he said.

Gov. Rick Snyder has 10 days to act on the review team’s report and reach a determination on the health of the county’s finances.