Financial literacy

A cover article in today's Sunday Free Press is about the Emergency Manager law we'll be voting on in November. Sorry to whet your appetite and not deliver, but I haven't read it yet. Perhaps I'll report on it later this week. At least there is lots of discussion of the topic. However, I have read a post on Michigan Radio that lists Three Things to Know About Emergency Managers. They are:

1. Michigan's cities have giant infrastructures and tiny budgets. I'm most familiar with Detroit which is big enough for 1.8 million people (the giant infrastructure) but currently has a tax base of 0.7 million (the tiny budget).

2. To be a city council member one only need be old enough and a registered voter. Yet the city council must act like the board of directors for a multi-million dollar corporation. Financial literacy just isn't there.

3. The EM law does provide for the EM to leave behind a multi-year budget for the city council to follow. That's good, but with the way city revenues keep shrinking those projections may not be all that helpful.

The second item in this list makes me wonder if education is the answer. Instead of having an EM take over city gov't is it possible to send city council members to an economic and financial boot camp? Would that be enough? Has it been tried?