City Leaders Debate 'Where The Money Should Go' During Annual 8-Mile Luncheon

DETROIT (WWJ) - Will the Michigan Legislature support Governor Snyder's plan to give $350 million to Detroit pensioners as part of the city's bankruptcy grand bargain?

Oakland County Executive, L Brooks Patterson was one of several speaking at the annual 8-Mile Boulevard Luncheon that also featured executives from Wayne and Macomb counties and Mayor Mike Duggan.

Patterson says it's going to be a hard sell:

"It didn't fly out state and they don't have the votes to pass it, and everybody is expressing exactly that point, but they don't say 'hey, we're tired of sending money to Detroit and my representative better not vote for it.' I've seen the reps from the north part of the lower-peninsula saying, 'we're not buying into this program,' so Snyder has got a very tough proposition to sell," he said.

"So he had a legal obligation to go to the three counties and say, 'would you be willing to make a deal and put money into the city's general fund," said Mayor Duggan. "At least two counties said 'no' at that point the judge doesn't have any right bankruptcy court to privatize the operation."

On the issue of creating a regional authority to run Detroit's water department:

Patterson has said in the past that he would not support a regional authority to run the Detroit water department due to the cost to Oakland county residents.

"My county board unanimously as Democrats, Republicans all twenty-two voted to appropriate five-hundred thousand dollars to study the possibility of evolving our own water system," said Patterson.

"Were it not for the pressure of the bankruptcy, I'm convinced that we could sit down together and figure out a long-term solution for this system," noted Duggan.