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Detroit “Grand Bargain” Clears Legislature

Laughlin Elkind/Flickr

Gov. Rick Snyder has vowed to sign legislation contributing almost $200 million to Detroit’s bankruptcy settlement. The state Senate gave the bills final legislative approval Tuesday.

The so-called “Grand Bargain” would help prevent huge cuts to retiree pensions and the sale of city-owned artwork at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The DIA and foundations have also pledged to contribute a few hundred million dollars toward the settlement. 

The governor says it’s a historic agreement that’s good for the entire state and its future.

“This is an opportunity to send the message: It’s Detroit, Michigan,” said Snyder. “And Detroit, Michigan is on the comeback path.”

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, called it a “smart, conservative decision.”

“To invest $195 million, put a whole lot of people that have worked for over 30 years at ease, and at the same time avoid significant risk and potential lineups for state services because of the numbers of employees that would fall below the poverty level,” said Richardville.

But state Sen. Coleman Young II, D-Detroit, says the legislation gives the state too much power to oversee the city’s finances into the future.

“It simply won’t do for the people of my city, my friends, my neighbors, my constituents, to be put under the thumb of another body, hand-picked by this administration to enact policies in their own best interests, not Detroit’s,” said Young.

He was the only Senator to vote against all nine bills in the package.

The settlement agreement still needs to be approved by city pensioners.

The Senate did not vote on a controversial bill that would prevent the DIA from renewing its millage in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. Amber McCann, Richardville’s spokesperson, says that bill is “dead.”