GM Offered Tax Incentives To Stay At Ren Cen

Maybe it was the historic troubles of the auto industry. Maybe it was the quiet, serious mien of Detroit Mayor Dave Bing compared to his uber-garrulous predecessor, Kwame Kilpatrick, especially when it came to verbal sparring with Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. But most of the answers to questions about the region's problems and regional cooperation stayed conventional and safe.

Indeed, the biggest laugh came when Patterson took to the stage after moderator Paul W. Smith called for the "youngest and newest" participant to come forward. (That honor actually went to Paul Gieleghem, chairman of the Macomb County Commission.)

The session began with an update on the OneD regional collaboration effort from its lead champion, Edsel B. Ford II. That update -- in which metro Detroit is benchmarked against 54 of the country's top metro areas on more than 75 indicators -- is avaialble to the public at www.onedscorecard.org.

After Bing got a huge, warm welcome and a standing ovation from the Chamber crowd, the event did make some news -- Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano announced that Detroit's Renaissance Center is now a state Renaissance Zone, meaning that if a struggling GM stays there, almost all taxes are abated and extra tax credits can be granted.

Bing did call Warren Mayor Jim Fouts' efforts to lure GM's headquarters to its Warren Tech Center "asinine."

Gieleghem complained that the auto industry is not being treated fairly by the federal government, with hundreds of billions of dollars bailing out the banking industry but a comparatively puny 47 billion going to the auto industry, and an auto industry task force made up entirely of people who have never worked in the auto industry. He also pointed out that Japanese transplant sales are falling as much or more as sales of the Detroit Three, meaning "this is not about the domestic auto indsutry."

Bing said he was looking forward to using federal stimulus dollars on worker retraining and the greening of Detroit.

And Gieleghem complained that when it comes to Michigan government, "the way we do things now is unsustainable. There are too many units of government in Michigan. Everybody is their own entity, their own fiefdom."

Other panelists agreed that government consolidation can be a good thing, but Patterson pointed to examples in Oakland County where it's been proposed and voted down.

And Patterson said he's only proposing a big addition to the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi if a deal to improve Detroit's Cobo Center falls through, and the region risks losing the North American International Auto Show.

"If for some reason the brass ring is there for Detroit to grab and it doesn't ... then I want to offer Oakland County as a backup site for the show so it doesn't go to Chicago," Patterson said.

Bing, for his part, said he's hopeful on getting an amended Cobo repair plan through his contentious City Council by July 1.
When it comes to Detroit's image, Charter One Bank Michigan CEO Sandra E. Pierce, who also chaired the chamber conference overall, pointed to the examples of earler panelists, who said those who have visited Michigan and had seen first-hand its cultural amenities, natural beauty and expertise in areas like health care should be tapped as the region's evangelists.