Thanks.

We have not reached bottom of the trough in real estate prices also which will eventually translate to lower tax revenues for the City. Pfizer the largest taxpayer has asked for tax relief. Can Briarwood Mall (the second largest taxpayer) be far behind in their request as vacancies and lower lease rates translate to lower property values? The warning signs are clear that spending restraint is needed. Homeowners are tapped out and juggling bill payments to make ends meet. A tax increase to fill the “pension bucket” will not be embraced this time.

Your work on this subject is invaluable and I thank you for it.

I hope that this information gets disseminated to every tax payer in the City.

Liberal, “shliberal.” This is just another example of well meaning but naive and under informed people (City Councils and City Administration of the last two dozen years, in this case) making promises that they cannot keep.

The only solution is to put the spending on a diet (sorry, no City Hall) and to freeze the current defined benefit plan for all current employees and switching to a defined contribution plan.

This is what most businesses in the country are now doing. There is no reason that government can continue to be immune from economic realities such as this.

Bob

What active employees of the City still are eligible for a pension? If there are jobs still eligible for this benefit, maybe it’s time to phase that out, following the suit of most other businesses.

You win the bet!

And sorry for the generalizations. I would like everyone to consider Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti as one entity. What good would it do for us to recover and leave our brothers and sister in Ypsilanti behind. We need to make sure Ypsilanti takes part in the prosperity when we finally see it again. SPARK understands that.

PS When I name names I tend to get in trouble and am branded as a dissident.

That’s a new one to me. I’m going to guess that it means “all other things being equal”. Did I win?

“In the past, Ann Arbor liked to boast that we were immune from the seemingly perpetual economic malaise that plagued the rest of the state.”

Et tu, Stew? It’s not enough to have had AAIO and multiple Ypsi residents and bloggers bash AA for elitism and snobbery (not to mention “liberalism”)? If your claim is true, at least name names instead of painting the whole community with that broad brush.

Nit picking aside (that’s for you, HD), thanks for following this, Stew.