Facing payless paydays, Ecorse management continued to use restricted funds for General Fund operations throughout the 1986 fiscal year and into the 1987 fiscal year. These interfund borrowings can be seen in the 1986 and 1987 audited financial statements. A summary of the interfund borrowings by the General Fund as of June 30, 1986 as compared to the equity of the respective fund follow (in thousands):
Fund |
Amount Owed
By General Fund |
Other Fund's Equity |
||
Major Streets |
$533 |
$244 |
||
Local Streets |
$226 |
$67 |
||
Debt Service |
$542 |
$814 |
||
Water and Sewer |
$1,860 |
$44 |
||
Longevity |
$221 |
$286 |
||
Current Tax Collections |
$265 |
— |
||
Other funds |
$77 |
|||
TOTAL OWED TO ALL FUNDS BY GENERAL FUND |
$3,877 |
|
The General Fund borrowing from the Current Tax Collections Fund arose from the collections of property taxes withheld from other governmental units, principally the Ecorse School District.
The amounts due to other funds by the General Fund generally represented a significant component of the equity of the fund. Virtually all of the cash and investments included in the Major and Local Streets, Debt Service, Water and Sewer, and Longevity Funds had been used by the General Fund by June 30, 1986 for its operations. While the amounts owed to these funds was $3,382,246 by the General Fund, the General Fund had only $17,100 in cash and investments as of June 30, 1986 (much of which represented the Treasurer's change fund). The interfund borrowings increased up to the receivership and would continue to plague the Receiver throughout the first several years of the receivership.
By December 1986 Ecorse had withheld vendor payments of approximately $1.5 million from the Detroit Water and Sewer Department for water costs and $.4 million from the Wayne County Department of Public Works for sewer costs in the Water and Sewer Fund. Payments to Detroit Edison were also delinquent. While the Police and Fire Pension Plan retirees were receiving retirement benefits directly from the General Fund, the required $408,000 of additional pension contributions for 1987 in accordance with the labor agreement had not been paid.