Pass the Aid to Detroit Bill - Stop the Ponmet Subsidy

Pass the Aid to Detroit Bill - Stop the Ponmet Subsidy

It was bad enough when Lions owner William Clay Ford decided to move his team to Pontiac, depriving Detroiters of yet another asset and the city itself of more badly-needed tax dollars.

But it got even worse when multi-millionaire Ford and a phalanx of suburban legislators managed to weasel an $800,000 annual subsidy for Pontiac Stadium out of the taxpayers' money. Not only is the subsidy questionable on ethical grounds-now, after only a few years, the Stadium people admit they really don't need it!

Nevertheless, the reactionaries in the legislature seem determined, as a matter of their twisted principles, to make the continuation of these outrageous payoffs a condition of their support for the desperately needed state financial aid package for Detroit. The Stadium subsidy has become their latest excuse for stalling a commitment to give the stricken city the support it should have had years ago.

This is truly adding insult to injury.

Suburban lawmakers and their white constituencies seem to take perverse pleasure in flogging Detroit for its supposed profligacy and making us jump through hoops for the privilege of their support, while at the same time setting themselves up as the benevolent uncle who just might condescend to help us out, even though he has no responsibility for his wayward relations.

What they forget, or choose to ignore, is (1) the fact that Detroit has been generous to the rest of the state for decades, and (2) we can no longer do so largely because our resources have been systematically drained by the suburbs these legislators represent.

We cannot stand by and refrain from comment while suburbanites continue to insist they bear no responsibility for Detroit's plight. It was, in fact, their flight from the city and its black residents over the past few decades that deprived Detroit of tens of thousands of jobs and millions of tax dollars, led to the destruction of our neighborhoods by freeways designed for commuters' convenience, and allowed the present apartheid to develop between the city and its outlying areas.

Under these circumstances, suburban legislators have a lot of gall to demand "fiscal accountability" from Detroit before tendering a small portion of their accumulated wealth. The city has already cut its services to the danger point in many cases, and has laid off thousands of workers, making our situation even more perilous. It has produced the Pelham Report expressly to show the legislators the harsh realities of present-day urban economies.

Now one legislator actually tells us we need the "Christian spirit" that Billy Graham is bringing to PonMet. We'd much rather have the money! How about a little Christian spirit from the suburbs?

The House should separate the PonMet subsidy question from the Detroit aid bill forthwith, and get the money to the city as soon as possible. Any Detroit legislator that votes otherwise should be branded as a traitor, and preferably tarred and feathered.

Then, instead of mumbling about "phasing out" the Stadium subsidy, the legislature could cut it off once and for all. If they have a hard time figuring out something else to do with the money, we've got lots of ideas. Maybe we could use it to hire back some of our laid-off city workers.