It's a familiar story in Michigan: cities and school systems in "financial emergencies."
Hamtramck now joins the list as Gov. Rick Snyder declared today that the city is in a financial emergency.
More from MLive's Kahlil AlHajal:
The review team cited a $3.3 million budget deficit and failure to make monthly pension contributions in recommending the governor declare an emergency in the the city of about 22,000 bordered on all sides by Detroit.
Under the state's revamped emergency manager law, the city will have four options going forward:
- a state-appointed emergency manager,
- mediation,
- a consent agreement, or
- municipal bankruptcy.
Hamtramck wanted to go through municipal bankruptcy back in 2010, but the state denied their request to do so.
The city was also under the direction of a state-appointed emergency financial manager from 2000 to 2007. Lou Schimmel, who is now Pontiac's emergency manager, was Hamtramck's EFM.
Schimmel's work didn't last. More from MLive:
Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski said in April that after the first stint of state control, the city was "left in a financial situation that was not sustainable."
Schimmel was not operating with today's emergency manager law. An emergency manager today would have more power to significantly change things in the financially troubled city.
The city has seven days to appeal the finding of a "financial emergency" by the state review team.
