Classic example of what is killing Detroit and America

This just in: The city of Detroit is paying $65,000 for a 2004 Dodge Intrepid that it doesn’t even own. Courtesy of YahooNews:

For drivers who don’t want to commit to a new car purchase, leasing has become a popular option. But for a police department in a city with a struggling economy, running up a $65,000 bill for what amounts to renting a nine-year-old car seems like a bit of an oversight. That’s just what the Detroit Police Department has been doing since 2003 when it leased a 2004 model Dodge Intrepid at the lofty price of $608 per month. The problem? They’ve been paying that price ever since.The original terms of the lease stated that the car would be returned in 2005, at which point the department could choose to buy it outright to take delivery of a newer model. That trade-in never happened, and so far the city has handed out a total of over $56,000 in monthly payments. But that’s not all: Because the department has gone well over the original mileage agreement, they owe nearly $10,000 in additional fees, bringing their total bill to well over $65,000. That’s $65,000 for a car that could be bought new in 2003 for less than $25,000.

But that is not even the most tragic part.

[T]he city is currently paying for over a hundred leased cars currently in use, and all of them are operating on expired leases. The seemingly careless spending could total several millions of dollars in the end, and the city apparently has no plans to reverse the practice.

Get that? Over 100 cars operating on expired leases! Millions of dollars in needlessly wasted taxpayer money. And the city has “no plans to reverse the practice.”

Detroit is crumbling. It doesn’t have enough money to cover basic utilities for its residents. It has jacked up tax rates sky-high on voters. Its budget problems are so bad that the state is threatening to step in.

Sadly, you can almost guarantee no one will get fired, because unions rule the city.

No wonder Detroit has become a basket case. But it is also a warning to America. The whole state of Michigan is not far behind Detroit. And if truth be told, America is not that far behind either.