A city or town has value. It comes in many forms. The value of the land, the assets of the city, the investments in community interests like education. When Snyder sent Emergency Managers into Michigan cities they simply saw the balance sheet and not the long term goal of a better future for the city and it's people. The assets were viciously taken from the ownership of the cities and sold to pay off debts. Following the Emergency Managers there was far less value to the city.
There is no favorable bond rating for Flint, Michigan. There is nothing to assure anyone purchasing municipal bonds that Flint would be able to provide a reasonable return on investment.
Hurley Medical Center is probably the largest public corporation near Flint and it only carries a "BBB" rating (click here).
There were simply no long term plan for Flint. All the sales were punitive and without investment that would improve the value of Flint and it's future.
By Ron Fonger
Flint - A new study shows (click here) the value of Flint’s housing stock dropped following the city’s water crisis and says the stigma of the man-made disaster persisted with “no evidence of recovery.”
The study, “Economic Effects of Environmental Crises: Evidence from Flint, Michigan,” was published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. It compared Flint’s housing prices to other distressed cities that were once industrial centers with declining incomes and populations since the 1970s as well as other Michigan cities that were also run by state-appointed emergency managers....
The study, “Economic Effects of Environmental Crises: Evidence from Flint, Michigan,” was published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. It compared Flint’s housing prices to other distressed cities that were once industrial centers with declining incomes and populations since the 1970s as well as other Michigan cities that were also run by state-appointed emergency managers....
Sure, Wall Street loves fire sales, but, it left Flint empty of value. It is called corruption. The year long corruption cover up only to be exposed by media and explained away while children were brain damaged, women experienced miscarriages and people died.
June 2022
State-appointed receivers made temporary improvements to balance budgets and improve short-term liquidity, but failed or were simply unable to address the structural causes of Flint’s fiscal distress. The focus of Michigan’s takeover policy has been eliminating deficits, which has been primarily achieved through spending cuts. Other than cutting retiree benefits, policies imposed under receivership largely failed to have any measurable effect on Flint’s long-term solvency. In fact, it is likely that some problems like deferred infrastructure maintenance, which does not show up on basic financial statements, worsened as a result of budget cuts.
Absent state-level policy changes, particularly around revenue sharing, Flint will likely continue to struggle. Over the past several decades, Flint’s tax base has been hollowed out, as most of its wealth fled to surrounding suburbs, while its debt remained in place. But as a result of restrictive state policies, the City has very little autonomy to adjust its tax policies and is dependent on an underfunded State revenue sharing program. While the State could use the statutory portion of its revenue sharing program to recognize and remedy historical inequities, the program is chronically underfunded....
The people of Flint focused on clean, safe drinking water. Ironically, they have suffered a near week of having to boil water because of a water main break recently. But, the people cared about themselves and rightfully so, no one else even attempted to change their plight. They weren't able to solve their own problems because of their financial state. The people were low income and "just one more thing" was simply their reality.
In response to Flint's inability to improve it's financial state, there is now a website for investors.
The City of Flint, Michigan (Flint), (click here) today announced the rollout of its new investor transparency initiative to attract more investors to its municipal bond offerings. The City of Flint launched a new investor relations website, CityofFlintInvestors.com, to centralize the latest news, project updates, reports, and more related to Flint's bond programs.
"We're excited about launching this new investor relations program alongside BondLink. Technology like this enables us to be more transparent and tell our story about how we're making critical investments in public infrastructure, public health, environmental projects, and more throughout the City of Flint," said Robert J.F. Widigan, chief financial officer of the City. "We're proud of our work to improve our financial positions; we continue to focus our efforts toward addressing the unfunded pension liability, quickly deploying one-time ARPA dollars into our community wisely and equitably, and increasing transparency and better governance in how we report financial data."...
Normally municipal bonds are viewed as some of the best and most stable for investors. What Snyder did was corrupt, racist and cruel. There is no doubt as far as I am concerned. The Michigan Emergency Manager Law under Snyder (I remind how the voter referendum was to terminate the law) was destructive. It was never written or carried out to rescue Flint and set it on a solid path. The assets were sold to the highest bidder and Flint was abandoned to continue to flounder in providing a solid footing for education and city services.
