Detroit To Layoff 2,500

We have talked about the serious fiscal issues being faced by the city of Detroit in the past, but in the past our talk about the jobs cuts to come has mostly been in theory. Today we have some information right from the horse’s mouth.  Dave Bing, the mayor for the city of Detroit has finally laid out an official budget that is designed to set right the fiscal crater that the city currently finds itself in.

The budget is designed to trim out about $250 million from the budget for the city. Sadly one of those cost cutting measures will require letting go of city workers. Roughly 2,500 workers will have to be given the pink slip in order for this plan to work out.

These cuts will be added to, not part of, the previously proposed set of city job cuts. For those of you who missed out on the earlier coverage on the first round of cuts for the year in Detroit here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all:

“It look like things are getting a job in the city of Detroit is going to get a lot harder then it was before. Not that it has been easy in the last couple of years as the city of Detroit has been rocked by major changes  to the budget. The city, via  Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis, has decided to cut a serious amount of the budget and layoffs are definitely on the table. Of course, we will not know the extent of the damage right now, the city Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis and the City Council still have to reach some kind of an agreement as to the exacts, but the proposal on the table already includes some serious changes.

First on the block is public transportation. If the proposal goes through the city would privatize it in order to save money. Next up are the  firefighters who will be retrained to act as the city’s first responders as well, implying heavily that other first responders will be cut back on. Other departments are on the table for closures, reductions in services and consolidations, though at the current moment the names of departments on the block have not been mentioned.  Currently the City Council members believe that only the police force and the fire department are going to be spared from the current wave of cuts.

All of these changes are needed for the city to deal with a coming years deficit that is larger than $100 million and long terms debts held by the city that are in excess of $12 billion.

All in all some city officials are looking to have as many as 1,000 workers let go by the end of spring and if all goes according to plan the city may have to do just that. For now there is no talking with the unions or other agreements, as the budget has to be passed before those kinds of negotiations can begin.”