Here's where I get hung up (and it's a little personal) on wages for public workers - how much can your tax base reasonably support?

There's a lot of people just barely hanging on to their homes - especially in Detroit, suburbs tend not to advertise - because of the biannual tax bill.

I had to take the Drive o' Shame down to Cobo and plead for help for Mom to keep hers; look at all the tax auctions, people walking away from their homes and businesses.

Most notably, look at the usurious interest they levy because you're late in paying.

So - you've gotta pay teachers a decent wage, you do this through property taxes, you're charging up the fucking wazoo for the "honor" of living in the county, you disproportionately target retirees, anyone nailed to the wall by the shit-ass economy here, you probably nail businesses to the wall to make up the shortfall...

So - net effect is, people lose their houses, the sort of folk you want for a strong community bail the fuck out, (if Mom loses her place, and we have to find her an apartment somewhere, why anywhere around here?) and things just spiral.

The teachers I've known live out in Bumfuck, Nowhere - they've got no investment or involvement in the communities they work for.

I'm not usually a fan of austerity measures, but if we want to pay teachers more - and I DO - maybe we should cut the bullshit off the top and get things back to Schools, Police, and Fire - and very little else.

'Cuz I don't think I'm going to be sticking around Michigan at all - not when the only jobs left are fiercely competed over, blue collar jobs are gone like Old Yeller, owning a house is 3500 a year just in taxes, car insurance kills any other discretionary income you hoped to have, and at the end of the day...it's as fucked up as it was back in 1990, minus a few hookers and a fancy Midtown for the gentrified folk.

And, frankly, I've a dim view of the potential outcome even possible given the demographics...I went to all those "Gifted and Talented" Detroit schools and would not be surprised if Life and the Universe and Fuckin' Everything still landed most of those kids in shitty jobs or jail anyway.

...Ugh. I'm sorry. This whole mess just pisses me off.