Michigan

As Michigan officials near their deadline for deciding the future of Detroit, a new report suggests that one of the more dramatic options on the table — a Chapter 9 bankruptcy — doesn't offer a panacea to the city's deep-seated financial problems.

Detroit’s Cobo Center, where the North American International Auto Show is held, more than doubled its revenue in the last year, according to the agency that runs it.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced Friday that the city had reached a tentative agreement with its police unions, the latest in a series of labor deals as officials scramble to avoid a state takeover.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder unveiled a $48.2 billion fiscal 2013 budget that he said reflects the state's improving fiscal position, boosting spending for education and roads and making a deposit into the state's anemic rainy-day fund.

Troubled Michigan school districts may find more affordable market access under legislation signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder that insulates certain types of bonds from the effects of bankruptcy.

CHICAGO — A Michigan film studio has defaulted on its Feb. 1 payment on $18 million of privately placed tax-exempt bonds, forcing the state pension plans, which back the debt, to make the payment.

CHICAGO — Mayor Dave Bing last week said Detroit has reached a tentative agreement with about half of its unions, which could help stave off the appointment of an emergency manager.

Michigan lawmakers have unveiled a series of bills that would revamp the state's transportation infrastructure formula, raise $1 billion of new money, and create a new bond-issuing regional transit authority for the Detroit region.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Jack Martin, a former chief financial officer for the U.S. Department of Education, to be emergency manager of the Highland Park School District.

Detroit could be required to cut its income tax rate this year under a Michigan law that was part of a deal to guarantee the struggling city a fixed amount of state revenue aid for eight years.

CHICAGO — Michigan legislators will introduce as soon as Wednesday a 13-bill package that aims to rebuild the state's ailing transportation infrastructure by raising $1.4 billion of new revenue annually.

Fitch Ratings last week affirmed the CCC rating but revised the outlook to positive from stable on Pontiac, a Detroit suburb that is under emergency financial management.

CHICAGO — Less than a year after opening, Michigan's largest film studio reportedly is in danger of missing its Feb. 1 debt service payment.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Wednesday night defended the state's expansion of its emergency management law for troubled local governments and urged legislators to address a steep road-funding shortfall and support a newly created educational authority that will take over the state's worst schools.

Michigan has $632 million more in its coffers than expected as it heads into fiscal 2013, fiscal officials said Friday at the state’s biannual revenue estimating conference.

The Brighton Area School District has asked the state for permission to put an $88 million bond issue on the May referendum.

A group of governments near Flint, Mich., hopes to solidify a plan over the next month to break away from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and begin construction of their own bond-financed water pipeline to Lake Huron.

A recently abandoned plan to build a light-rail line in Detroit won new life last week when the federal government agreed to give local officials 90 days to refine a less costly plan.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing told the City Council last week that contrary to earlier projections, the city would not run out of cash by April.

A week ahead of Michigan's formal revenue forecasting conference, an independent fiscal agency has released a report suggesting the state could end its current fiscal year with a $736 million surplus.