In Highland Park, the mayor struggles to change the view BY JEFF GERRITT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST March 4, 2002

Highland Park’s Financial Problems Through the high windows of his living room, Linsey Porter can see the abandoned house pushing up against his property. In Highland Park, even a three-term mayor with the city's most valuable home can't hide from trouble. Now it's right in Porter's face. He's still The Man and holds the title. But the mayor hasn't gotten paid since July 18. The state took over Highland Park last June, appointing an emergency financial manager, Ramona Henderson Pearson, to keep the city solvent. After losing a court battle with the police and firefighter union, a weary Henderson Pearson told me she plans to ask the state to declare the city bankrupt -- a drastic step the state has never taken. Others have talked of merging Highland Park with Detroit.

Reduction of Tax Base There aren't as many doctors or lawyers these days. When Porter, whose father worked on the Chrysler assembly line, was a high school baseball star, Highland Park was a thriving community of 45,000 people. There were no boarded up businesses or abandoned houses. During the 1980s, the city lost nearly 30 percent of its population and 10 percent of its jobs, mainly in manufacturing. Median household income dropped to less than $10,000 a year. In Porter's first term, the Sears store closed and Chrysler Corp. bailed, taking a third of the city's operating budget. Today, in Highland Park's 2.9 square miles, there are nearly 1,000 abandoned buildings and vacant lots, and just 16,700 people.

What the Mayor has Done Even Porter's critics give him some props for attracting $300 million of commercial and residential development, including an industrial site at Oakland Park, new housing projects, two shopping centers and a $20-million commercial complex. Inheriting a city with $13 million in debts, Porter cut the number of city employees in half. That made him plenty of enemies in a small town, a few of whom even threatened his life. Porter refused to take a body guard, but he packed a pistol and usually locked his office door. In the end, Porter couldn't cut enough, or didn't. The city took in $11 million a year and spent at least $12 million -- more than half of that on police and fire service.

The Economics Revenue = tax rate * tax base R = t * b Costs, Revenues Tax Base Costs Revenues Initial Tax Base What happens if the tax base dries up? You must either cut costs or raise revenues!