Michigan

Detroit officials at an appeals hearing in Lansing Tuesday said Michigan should craft a stronger consent agreement to help stabilize the city instead of taking Detroit over by appointing an emergency financial manager.

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded to Baa1 from A2 its rating on Romulus Community Schools, a suburban Detroit school district with declining enrollment and pressured financial position.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing chose Cleveland-based law firm Jones Day to serve as counsel for the city's restructuring plan.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick headed straight to jail Monday just hours after a jury found him guilty of 24 counts in a months-long federal corruption trial.

Standard & Poor's last week downgraded its rating to B-minus from B on the Detroit suburb of Allen Park, a once-wealthy city that is now under emergency management, due in part to $31 million of bonds issued for a failed film studio.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said Wednesday he would not fight the state's plan to appoint an emergency financial manager to take over the city, just an hour after the city council formally requested a hearing to appeal the appointment.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's historic decision Friday to take over the city of Detroit bodes well for the credit and for other local distressed governments, muni experts said, even as Snyder warned that all creditors might take have to take a loss.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Friday announced that the long-suffering city of Detroit was in a state of financial emergency, paving the way for a full state takeover within two weeks.

Mike Duggan, the former CEO of the Detroit Medical Center and a former Wayne County prosecutor, was expected Tuesday night to make official his mayoral bid, as the threat of a state takeover looms.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced last week that deputy mayor Kirk Lewis left the administration for a job in the private sector.

The long-struggling city of Flint, which has been under emergency management for more than a year, is selling nearly $60 million of speculative-grade bonds on behalf of Hurley Medical Center, a city owned facility that serves as the local safety net provider.

If Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appoints an emergency manager for Detroit, that person will tackle $15 billion of long-term debt liabilities and try to maneuver around a $440 million swap termination payment.

Treasurer Andy Dillon said Detroit can avoid bankruptcy, after a Michigan review team found that a financial emergency exists in the city paving the way for an emergency manager.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing last week unveiled a public-private partnership to tackle demolition of the countless vacant and blighted buildings across the city.

The board of Wayne State University last week approved a plan to sell $92 million of general revenue bonds this spring to finance new construction, including a new building in Detroit.

With the threat of an emergency manager hanging over Detroit, Mayor Dave Bing said the city is making progress despite its fiscal problems during an optimistic state of the city address.

Long-time Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson – recovering from an August car accident in which he was seriously injured -- said the triple-A county was starting to rebound from the Great Recession.

Refunding opportunities fueled a 36.3% surge in bond issuance among Midwestern borrowers last year as the steadfastly conservative region shied away from adding new debt in favor of shoring up balance sheets.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Thursday presented a $51 billion all-funds 2014 budget that would raise fuel and registration taxes to support $1.2 billion of new annual infrastructure funding, expand Medicaid and boost education spending.

A bill introduced last week would ask Michigan voters to raise the state sales tax by 2 percentage points to generate new money for transportation infrastructure funding.