When Was Flint 'Run Like a Business'?
'Never waste a crisis' becomes rewriting history
A Detroit Free Press columnist posted a three-paragraph commentary this week titled: "Flint: Why government shouldn’t be run like a business."
ForTheRecord says: Who can remember when Flint was ever run like a business?
The 2011 report of the state financial review team that led to state receivership for Flint documented various forms of mismanagement. Among other things, the city overspent its annual revenues in each of the five years from 2007 to 2011.
The city’s annual deficits during those years — $1.5 million, $15.0 million, $13.4 million, $24.3 million and $25.7 million — dug too deep a hole for Flint to climb out from. The result was the appointment of an emergency manager.
What business could stay open with that track record of overspending?
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.