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The Voice of Downriver North Zone Edition

Southgate, Michigan 48195 Wednesday, January 30, 2013

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By David KomerThe News-Herald

TAYLOR The school district and its teachers unionhave tentatively agreed to a new contract.

The agreement, which the sides reached Jan. 18, mustbe ratified by both the Board of Education and the TaylorFederation of Teachers. Terms of the deal were not imme-diately available.

The district is working to meet a Feb. 1 deadline set bythe Michigan Department of Education for its three-year,$19 million deficit elimination plan. All labor unions musthave contracts with the district before the deficit plan canbe accepted by the state.

Union President LindaMoore said the deal wasconcessionary but address-es a large share of thedistricts deficit.

Over the (next) three

years, the agreement wipesout a significant amountof the deficit, she said.There will be layoffs, wagereductions. There will be asignificant number of posi-tions that we will lose.

School Supt. Diane Allensaid the agreement is a bigstep forward for the district.

Both sides worked hardand I think we arrived atsome numbers that every-one could agree with, shesaid.

This is the second tenta-tive agreement betweenteachers and the district.The first was in mid-November, but was not ratified because the school board

did not approve it. The board is scheduled to vote on thelatest proposal by today or tomorrow.

Moore said she will wait to ask her union to ratify ituntil after the school board does.

We need to come to something, she said. It was ahard-fought battle. We came to something we can live withand it resolves the deficit issue. It was contentious at times,but we have always had a good working agreement withthe school board.

In a release, Allen thanked the TFT for its significantand substantial contributions toward improving thedistricts fiscal health.

I think this will be instrumental in addressing andresolving the districts significant financial problems, shesaid.

Moore said the brunt of personnel cuts will be absorbed

Teachers, schoolsreach tentative dealAgreement includeslayoffs, wage cuts

PLEASE SEE TEACHERS/2-A

Photo courtesy of NASA

Great Lakes weatherThis remarkable image, taken Jan. 24 from NASAs Moderate Resolution ImagingSpectroradiometer, shows the view from space as an arctic blast sweeps acrossMichigan and the surrounding Great Lake states.

Housingapplicationwebsite isnow upBy David KomerThe News-Herald

TAYLOR The HousingCommissions website forhousing voucher waitinglist applications is up andrunning just two weeks afterpolice were forced to can-cel an event at the HumanServices Center on EurekaRoad.

Officials are hoping thenew site, taylorhousing.org, will lead to a smoothersign-up process for needyresidents of the tricountyarea to get on housing wait-ing lists.

On Jan. 12, an in-personsign-up event turned ugly.An unexpectedly large

crowd of about 4,000 becameunruly, and the resultingchaos led to four arrests,multiple arguments and sev-eral physical altercations.

The sign-up was shutdown by police over safetyconcerns. A make-up datehas not been scheduled.

At their Jan. 19 meeting,commissioners approvedproposals to hire a com-pany to set up an online site

PLEASE SEE HOUSING/2-A

By Alan BurdziakThe News-Herald

LINCOLN PARK Adeputy state treasurer wason hand Monday nightas discussion at a specialcouncil meeting inevitablyshifted to the citys precari-ous financial situation.

Roger Fraser urged offi-cials to act quickly as thecity could be out of cash bythe end of the current fiscalyear, June 30, if spending is

not curtailed.The reason Im here iswe see you headed towardyour own version of the fis-cal cliff, he told the mayorand council.

Fraser, who was appoint-ed in 2011, oversees thestates emergency financialmanager program withthe official title of deputytreasurer in charge of localgovernment services.

He outlined a couple ofscenarios in which the statewould order a review of thecitys finances and also told

leaders to set aside differ-ences and work to avoid apossibly worse situation.

You yourselves need toget coalesced around a strat-egy, Fraser said.

If Lincoln Park finishesthe fiscal year short of cashor if deficits go uncheckedin the water and sewerageand sanitation funds, bothwill lead to state scrutiny,he said. According to anaudit report for the 2011-12fiscal year, the water and

sewer fund had about $7.7million in revenue and $10million in expenses, result-ing in a deficit of about$2.27 million.

The sanitation fund rana deficit of about $221,000during that year, but stillhas a fund balance of about$84,000 and total revenues of$1.7 million.

Under new legislationGov. Rick Snyder signedinto law in December dur-ing the Legislatures lame-duck session, local entitiesfacing receivership will

have four options: a consentagreement with the state,mediation, bankruptcy oran emergency manager.

Public Act 436 replacedPublic Act 4 of 2011, whichwas shot down by votersin November. It is seen asa revised version of PA 4,which caused much contro-versy.

State Democrats andgroups that opposed PA 4also have condemned itsreplacement.

Opponents of PA 4 saidit undermined democracybecause it gave emergencymanagers the ability torevoke the powers of electedofficials and break public

employee union contracts,among others. While emer-gency managers, as theyreknown under both acts,

can still break union dealsunder 436, an option wasbuilt in to allow officials tovote out the receiver after18 months on the job if theyare unsatisfied.

In November, the lawreverted to its predecessor,PA 72 of 1990, and PA 436will go into effect at theend of March. Currently,emergency financial man-agers run operations inAllen Park, Benton Harbor,Ecorse, Flint and Pontiac

Deputy state treasurer urges cityto take quick action on finances

PLEASE SEE FINANCES/15-A

The reason Im here is we seeyou headed toward your own

version of the fiscal cliff.ROGER FRASER

Michigan deputy state treasurer

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