Detroit set a new annual record, though it's hardly a matter of pride.
Matt Helms of the Detroit Free Press tells what independent auditors say:
Detroit's latest annual audit pegs the city's accumulated general-fund deficit at nearly $327 million, underscoring the depth of the city's fiscal crisis as state-appointed officials review the city's finances.
The outside accountants echo a conclusion also reached by state Treasurer Andy Dillon. Auditors from a firm named KPMG say the deficit figures "raise significant liquidity risks regarding the city's ability to meet its financial obligations . . . without raising revenues, cutting costs of services provided and effectuating financial restructuring,"
The new figure is more than $130 million above the shortfall of nearly $196 million for fiscal 2010-11, Helms notes.
In a year-ahead column at The Detroit News, business writer Daniel Howes says:
The city is out of time and options, a stark realization that took way too long to arrive at the council table. Like its eponymous auto industry, Detroit cannot defy indefinitely the basic laws of economics, accounting and common sense
