FEBRUARY 6 - 12, 2017 Signs point A little less to historic Gilbert in new skyscraper push for tax dispute incentives Owners, buyers battle Spotlight elsewhere on over Ford Building, Page 3 brown eld bills, Page 3 RON FOURNIER Publisher/Editor Duggan’s future may lie beyond his city In January 2014, I wrote a column for e Atlantic titled, “President Trump? Stranger ings Might Hap- pen.” While I didn’t exactly predict Donald Trump’s election, I did fore- IMMIGRATION’S see the rise of the angry, an- ti-establish- ment populism ECONOMIC he rode to the White House. So forgive this cheeky pre- IMPACT TANYA MOUTZALIAS/THE ANN ARBOR NEWS VIA AP diction: If May- Maria Martinez of Detroit holds onto an American ag during a Michigan United news conference last week following President Donald Trump’s executive order. or Mike Dug- Duggan: Could gan wins re-election lead to Michigan re-election and higher o ce? Local biz worries Resettlement agencies continues his refugees pattern of incremental but import- Most refugees now in Michigan face uncertain future ant progress in Detroit, he could be a over order’s e ect came from the seven countries By Sherri Welch contender for the presidency. By Dustin Walsh in President Trump’s executive [email protected] Don’t laugh. e same factors that [email protected] order of Jan. 27. e region’s refugee resettlement fed Trump’s ascent could aid a Friday is the birthday of both of Omar Zadoyan’s two sons infrastructure is at risk in the wake of pudgy pragmatist from Detroit: Origination Fiscal 2016 — 6 and 3 years old. President Trump’s executive order Voters don’t want to elevate any- It will be the second birthday for both boys in the U.S. after em- Iran 9 blocking and limiting refugee ad- body from Washington, a city gripped igrating from Iraq as refugees in 2014. Zadoyan, who works as a Iraq 1,119 mission to the U.S. by two-party extremism and gridlock. health care advocate for the Arab Community Center for Eco- Layo s are on the horizon for all Voters favor change agents and Libya 0 nomic & Social Services in Sterling Heights and is a student at Ma- four local nonpro t resettlement outsiders over status quo candi- comb Community College, will buy birthday cake and balloons. Somalia 255 agencies, which added sta to han- dates. Educated as a civil engineer and employed as a banker in Sudan 55 dle the expected in ux of refugees Voters are tired of politicians who his native Baghdad, Zadoyan is now a proud green-card from war-torn Iraq and Syria after How a resettlement over-promise and under-deliver. holder in the U.S. — a status he fears won’t be possible for his Syria 1,374 former President Obama raised the agency helped Odai But I’m getting ahead of myself. fellow countrymen trying to ee war-torn Iraq following Yemen 3 number for scal 2017 to 110,000. Alaaneri and his Duggan has to win re-election and President Donald Trump’s executive order that suspends ref- Following the executive order, Sa- convert Detroit’s nascent recovery Total from family, Page 18 ugee resettlement from seven Middle East countries. countries in 2,815 maritas, Catholic Charities of South- into something broader and bolder — Zadoyan joins local business leaders and economists who exec. order east Michigan, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and then develop national ambitions. fear that the order says the U.S., and Southeast Michigan, are Detroit and Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County He doesn’t seem to have them now. not open for business to all immigrants. e order is creating Total of all could see an estimated loss of three-quarters or more of the People like me obsess over his po- refugees to tension between the economy, which needs to expand, and the roughly $4 million in total federal dollars they would have litical future. Duggan is obsessed Michigan 4,258 need to ensure the security of U.S. citizens against received before the new limits were put in place. with Detroit. SEE EFFECT , PAGE 19 Source: U.S. Department of State SEE AGENCIES , PAGE 18 “ e rst term basically was to get © Entire contents copyright 2017 the city working. e buses are now by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved running on time and the police are crainsdetroit.com Vol. 33 No 6 $2 a copy. $59 a year. showing up and the lights are on,” For angel fund, the mayor said in a telephone inter- Traverse City view as he launched his campaign for re-election. “ ose things were means more very important. Now we’re going to turn our attention to building a city than tourism that’s a great city for families. I think NEWSPAPER See Crain’s Michigan that is the number-one issue.” Business, Page 8 SEE DUGGAN , PAGE 22 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS // FEBRUARY 6, 2017 INSIDE MICHIGAN BRIEFS BANKRUPTCIES 22 CALENDAR 17 End state income tax? e proposals stir a familiar eco- tals spent $627 million on uncom- cords requests, is a new attempt to CLASSIFIED ADS 17 Look to Kansas rst nomic debate. Anna Heaton, press pensated care; in 2015, it was down to get legislation to the governor’s desk secretary for GOP Gov. Rick Snyder, $327.1 million. A separate study by after similar bills won overwhelming KEITH CRAIN 6 As Republican lawmakers in told Bridge that Snyder wants proof the UM Institute for Social Research approval in the Republican-led MARY KRAMER 7 Michigan consider abolishing the there is “adequate” revenue from showed there was an across-the- House last year but died in the OPINION 6 state’s income tax, they might want other sources to make up the dier- board decline in uncompensated GOP-controlled Senate. e biparti- to heed the example of another Mid- ence. But Michael LaFaive of the care in all 142 state hospitals. san proposal’s lead sponsors are OTHER VOICES 6 western state, a Bridge Magazine re- Midland-based free-market think J Jarrod Agen, chief of sta to Gov. state Reps. Lee Chateld, R-Lever- PEOPLE 17 port notes. tank Mackinac Center for Public Pol- Rick Snyder, is joining President ing, and Jeremy Moss, D-Southeld. RON FOURNIER 1, 6 In Kansas, GOP Gov. Sam Brown- icy called the House tax proposal “a Trump’s admin- e legislation gained momentum back in 2012 led an eort to put a sub- good rst step” and said Michigan istration as dep- last year in the wake of Flint’s water RUMBLINGS 22 stantial income tax cut into law, the “is still taxed too much. We should uty assistant to crisis and a sex scandal that forced WEEK ON THE WEB 22 ultimate goal being a gradual elimi- be a leader in ecient government.” the president two legislators from oce. nation of the tax. e state GDP re- According to the Tax Foundation, a and communi- J Michigan’s Unemployment Insur- COMPANY INDEX: sponded by growing at less than half Washington, D.C., tax research orga- cations director ance Agency settled a lawsuit in SEE PAGE 21 the national rate through early 2016, nization, Michigan ranked 25th for Vice Presi- which it was sued for using an auto- and Brownback siphoned millions of among the 50 states in the share of dent Mike mated computer system that falsely Big Rapids and the Manistee News dollars from state highway funds to income paid in scal 2012 paid to- Pence. Agen be- accused thousands of people of Advocate; weeklies in Baldwin, Ben- balance the budget, which last No- ward all state and local taxes, with 9.4 came Snyder’s fraud, AP reported. e suit was dis- zie County and Osceola County; and vember was in a $345 million hole. percent of income paid in those taxes. Jarrod Agen chief of sta in missed by a U.S. district judge under four shopper publications. In Michi- In Michigan, the state income tax January 2016 af- an agreement between the state and gan, Hearst owns the Huron Daily is a $9 billion source of revenue, but MICH-CELLANEOUS ter serving two years as Snyder’s the plaintis. e state said the deal Tribune and Midland Daily News. backers of tax-cut proposals have J e number of unpaid bills in most communications director. Agen’s ex- codies practices put in place after it J Union membership in Michigan not said from where funds to com- Michigan hospitals plummeted since perience includes serving as deputy ceased “auto-adjudications” in 2015. declined in 2016 as part of a drop na- pensate for that loss would come, the state expanded Medicaid under press secretary and associate direc- A lawsuit seeking nancial damages tionwide, according to the U.S. De- Bridge reported. A bill sponsored by the Aordable Care Act in 2014, ac- tor of strategic communications for is ongoing. partment of Labor. e Bureau of Rep. Lee Chateld of Levering would cording to a new study by the Univer- the U.S. Department of Homeland J e Pioneer Group, a Big Rap- Labor Statistics said the number of cut the state’s 4.25 percent income sity of Michigan’s Institute for Health- Security and at the federal Environ- ids-based publisher of newspapers union members in Michigan tax to 3.9 percent in January 2018, care Policy and Innovation. e mental Protection Agency and State and operator of a digital marketing dropped from 621,000 in 2015 to then call for further rollbacks of 0.1 report showed that of the 88 hospitals Department.