City’s financial health: thank you covid money

There has been talk lately – or, to put it more accurately, boasting – about how great the city is doing financially.
That part is accurate.
But, according to a certain elected official, it’s all due to him, the council and the administration.
For the first time in 20 years, he claims!
To be fair, the current administration is doing a great job, and we are confident there will be more good financial news down the road. One administration builds upon the work of previous administrations.
But let’s set the record straight. The city’s past financial woes weren’t because of past incompetence. It’s always been about Hamtramck’s loss of tax revenue over the years, as industries and businesses closed up.
And then, there was the legacy cost of funding the pension, which has been an albatross around the city’s neck.
Two emergency managers did step in, but they, too, failed to change the systemic financial problems strangling the city – and so many other older cities.
All of that changed a few years ago when the covid pandemic set in.
In an effort to boost the limping economy with so many people out of commission and out of work, the federal government flooded local and state governments with money.
Hamtramck, like many other communities, all of a sudden was on the receiving end of millions of dollars. That also happened with the public school district.
And other grants and funding came in as well, thanks to work of previous administrations and the current one.
A change in elected officials had nothing to with any of this.
But now, guess what?
All of that emergency “Build Back Better and covid funding is coming to an end. The gravy train is about to come to a halt.
The true test is what is coming in the next few years, while Hamtramck still floats on what’s left of the millions of dollars it received.
City officials have been warned that the pension fund will continue to be a drag on financial resources. We have confidence things will turn out OK, but mindless bragging has a way of coming back to bite you.
Posted Oct. 20, 2023