A political fight in Lansing could mean tens of millions of dollars in un-budgeted borrowing costs for Detroit Public Schools over the next few years.
At issue is legislation that would have allowed the district to make a new deal with creditors. The deal would have given the troubled school system more time to pay off its bonds. But the measures were tabled after Republican and Democratic leaders had a disagreement over an unrelated measure and adjourned for the year. Now officials with the school system will have to come up with the cash more quickly.
Democratic state Representative Fred Durhal sponsored the measure. He says he plans to revisit the issue in January.
“We can’t afford to have school districts going bankrupt in this state. It’s going to kill the state’s credit rating and all of that – all of these things are tied together, and we just have to do what is right.”
A spokesman for state House Republicans there are no plans to revisit the bills.
