CHICAGO — As the Michigan Senate gears up to vote on a package of Detroit bankruptcy bills, a House lawmaker has added a 12th bill to the package tied to city's post-bankruptcy oversight board.
The House has already passed an 11-bill package.
State Rep. John Walsh, R-Livonia, who chairs a special House committee devoted to the city's bankruptcy and recovery, introduced House Bill 5600, which would allow the Detroit mayor to be one of the members on a nine-member board that will oversee the city's finances for the next 13 years or longer.
The bill was needed because state law currently prohibits elected officials from holding "incompatible public offices," according to local reports.
Walsh's move came about a week after the full House approved by an overwhelming majority an 11-bill package authorizing a state contribution to the city's pensions and a host of other measures relating to Detroit's bankruptcy.
At a House hearing on the Detroit bills, Mayor Mike Duggan said he wanted to appoint himself to the oversight board. Walsh's committee will reportedly hold a hearing on the bill on June 4.
Separately, conservative group Americans for Prosperity is heavily lobbying Republican senators to reject the deal. The group argues that Michigan taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for what is more a mismanagement problem by local Detroit leadership than a money problem.
