Michigan

Utica Community Schools in Macomb County, Michigan, suffered a three-notch downgrade as declining enrollment takes its toll on the district’s books.

The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan plans to ask voters in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties to approve a 1.5 mill property tax increase for improved transit .

Michigan’s struggling cities won’t be able to reverse their declining fiscal health if they continue to depend on the state’s faulty revenue sharing system, the Michigan Municipal League said in a report.

Wayne County, Mich. County Executive Warren Evans has said he intends to make the bid to end the county’s emergency consent agreement by the end of 2016.

Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Rick Snyder have settled on a budget framework that cuts funding for a proposed state water infrastructure fund to offset dwindling tax revenue while leaving intact $165 million in proposed aid for Flint.

Bridgeport-Spaulding Community School District and New Haven Community Schools have manageable fiscal stress and will not require emergency management.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration and lawmakers will work in the coming weeks to trim $333 million from the 2016 and 2017 budget plans due to a downward revision of revenues expected in the current biennium.

A group of local and national foundations have pledged $125 million to help Flint, Michigan deal with its water contamination crisis.

Michigan’s state treasurer has sided with the state Senate over the state House after the two houses developed different legislation to restructure Detroit Public Schools.

Detroit Public Schools is moving perilously closer to a possible default or Chapter 9 filing, Moody's Investors Service said in a commentary.

Wayne County, Mich., is open to moving its unfinished downtown Detroit jail to make way for a soccer stadium, but only if it is not saddled with the money and debt it has already sunk into the project

Voters in Indiana and Michigan responded favorably to requests for hundreds of millions of dollars in requests for bond borrowing authority.

State legislation to deal with about $500 million in Detroit Public Schools debt is headed to Michigan’s full House after winning approval Wednesday.

Some version of Detroit’s so-called “grand bargain” could help other fiscally struggling Rust Belt cities, including Chicago, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research says in a report.

Fitzgerald Public School District in Macomb County, Michigan lost its investment grade rating on its limited tax general obligation bonds and remains at risk of its unlimited tax GOs also falling to a speculative grade.

Debate began Tuesday in the Michigan House on a $715 million restructuring of Detroit Public Schools amid mounting growing pressure to act as the district’s fiscal crisis prompted a two-day district-wide “sickout.”

Voters in Indiana and Michigan headed to the polls Tuesday will decide the fate of more than $1 billion in school district borrowing requests.

The Michigan House signed off on a $54 billion fiscal 2017 budget that provides more money to deal with Flint’s water contamination crisis and record spending for kindergarten through 12th grade education.

In a near unanimous vote, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday passed a bill that includes $1.4 billion in federal funding for Flint, Mich. as well as any other community facing a water crisis.

After having been withdrawn from the energy bill in the Senate, controversial legislation to provide federal funds to Flint, Mich., and any other community facing a water crisis, has been included in a major water bill introduced in the chamber this week.