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Michigan attorney general backs pensioners in Detroit bankruptcy
Reuters via Yahoo News ^ | 07/27/2013 | Susan Kelly

Posted on 07/28/2013 5:30:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Michigan's Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican, said on Saturday he would defend retirees who risk losing public pensions because of Detroit's bankruptcy, putting him at odds with the city's emergency manager appointed by fellow Republican Governor Rick Snyder.

Schuette, an elected official, said the Michigan state constitution is "crystal clear" in stating that pension plans are a contractual obligation that may not be diminished or impaired.

"Retirees may face a potential financial crisis not of their own making, possibly a result of pension fund mismanagement," Schuette said in a statement.

The attorney general said he would file in federal bankruptcy court on Monday on behalf of the pensioners affected by the biggest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

A U.S. bankruptcy court judge on Wednesday dealt a blow to Detroit's public employee unions and pension funds opposed to the filing by suspending legal challenges in Michigan state courts while he reviews the city's petition for protection from creditors.

The city's unions and pension funds had hoped to keep the fight in state court, where they felt Michigan's constitutional protections of retiree benefits would prevail against any efforts by state-appointed Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to scale them back.

Judge Steven Rhodes ordered three lawsuits filed by city workers, retirees and pension funds halted and said that applied also to suits against Orr as well as Michigan's governor and treasurer.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: bankruptcy; chapter9; detroit; michigan; pension; pensioners; rosemaryaquillina
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To: Gen.Blather

There are many retired from the US government doing the same thing. Many with only a couple years of service expecting a lifetime of benefits.


21 posted on 07/28/2013 6:47:59 AM PDT by Racer1
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To: McGavin999
The Michigan State Constitution seems to guarentee these pensioners their pensions. There has yet to be any damage to them by this B/K. There will be and when there is the the pensioners should go after the state to get their money. The state of Michigan and it's taxpayers may well be on the hook for this.
22 posted on 07/28/2013 6:48:48 AM PDT by Captain Compassion
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To: Racer1

“Many with only a couple years of service expecting a lifetime of benefits.”

Their sense of entitlement is awesome. I have never known anybody else who expected a lifetime of pay and medical benefits for so little of their lifetime spent. Every company I worked for is either out of business or laid me off long before I could have retired. I have only my 401k and (yeah, sure) Social Security. I expect that eventually SS payments will be tied to means, meaning if you scrimped and saved you won’t get any.


23 posted on 07/28/2013 6:51:11 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: SeekAndFind

What higher office is this guy planning on running for?


24 posted on 07/28/2013 6:55:32 AM PDT by Old Retired Army Guy
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To: taildragger

“anything, but no more defined contribution plans period”

You are “preaching to the choir” on that one.


25 posted on 07/28/2013 7:17:52 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: SeekAndFind

What’s so bad about Detroit? It takes an hour for the ambulance to get there? Try living on a farm or ranch. You get hurt and you get thrown in the back of a pickup. Only 40% of the streetlights work? You have to pay every month for your yard light on the farm. Don’t pay the bill and the power company shuts the light off. Empty houses? The past 100 years has seen the movement of Americans from the country to the city. In my state, the number of rural schools has dropped dramatically. The kids just have to get up earlier to go to a different school. The world changes. Detroit has to change. It’s not unfair, it just is.


26 posted on 07/28/2013 7:38:12 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SeekAndFind

“...the Michigan state constitution is “crystal clear” in stating that pension plans are a contractual obligation that may not be diminished or impaired.”

However, the rules of contracts change when one of the parties enters into bankruptcy.

So if a judge rules that having an emergency manager for a city comes under bankruptcy law, even if it is not in official bankruptcy, then the contracts are under court control and discretion, and the Attorney General can go pound sand.


27 posted on 07/28/2013 7:43:31 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Be Brave! Fear is just the opposite of Nar!)
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To: SeekAndFind

These bastards are delusional....THERE IS NO MONEY...make laws all you want to pad your corrupt asses but the day of reckoning has arrived. See how the people who are forced to pay this crap reacts when you force them to bail these union assholes out!!!!


28 posted on 07/28/2013 8:15:24 AM PDT by ontap (***)
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To: Springman; cyclotic; netmilsmom; RatsDawg; PGalt; FreedomHammer; queenkathy; madison10; ...
I don't like it but I think Schuette doesn't have much choice in this situation. He has a duty to the Michigan constitution and protecting these pensions is unfortunately in our constitution.

Frankly I'm hoping he runs for governor some day.

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Michigan legislative action thread
29 posted on 07/28/2013 9:17:45 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Old Retired Army Guy

Hopefully governor. He’s a far better AG than most and in this case the state constitution says the pensions are protected and his job is to uphold the state constitution. However with this in bankruptcy his power is limited.

Frankly he makes Rick Snyder look like Michael Moore in comparison.


30 posted on 07/28/2013 9:24:33 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: McGavin999
This is an easy fix, have an emergency vote and change the constitution. You ask the taxpayers in the rest of the state if they want to increase their taxes to pay for Detroit’s pensioners to change to constitution to reduce pensions no lower then what social security would pay.

I'd rather have this as an amendment:

Fiscal Responsibility Amendment
Section I
The power of Congress to regulate the value of the dollar is hereby repealed.

Section II
The value of the Dollar shall be one fifteen-hundredth avoirdupois ounce of gold of which impurities do not exceed one part per thousand.

Section III
To guard against Congress using its authority over weights and measures to bypass Section I, the ounce in Section II is approximately 28.3495 grams (SI).

Section IV
The Secretary of the Treasury shall annually report the gold physically in its possession; this report shall be publicly available.

Section V
The power of the Congress to assume debt is hereby restricted: the congress shall assume no debt that shall cause the total obligations of the United States to exceed one hundred ten percent of the amount last reported by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Section VI
Any government agent, officer, judge, justice, employee, representative, or congressman causing gold to be confiscated from a private citizen shall be tried for theft and upon convection shall:
     a. be removed from office (and fired, if an employee),
     b. forfeit all pension and retirement benefits,
     c. pay all legal costs, and
     d. restore to the bereaved twice the amount in controversy

Section VII
The federal government shall assume no obligation lacking funding, neither shall it lay such obligation on any of the several States, any subdivision thereof, or any place under the jurisdiction of the United States. All unfunded liabilities heretofore assumed by the United States are void.

Section VIII
The federal government shall make all payments to its employees or the several states in physical gold. Misappropriation, malfeasance and/or misfeasance of these funds shall be considered confiscation.

31 posted on 07/28/2013 11:41:55 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
The idea that these retirees don’t share the blame is just absurd. They voted in politicians promising benefits

Your statement is absurd, you know no such thing. I know many retirees from the city of Detroit who are died in the wool conservatives who would never have voted for any of those people. Why, you ask?

BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIVE IN THE CITY OF DETROIT, THEY ONLY WORKED THERE!

Did that thought ever cross your mind?......Sheesh!

32 posted on 07/28/2013 1:34:15 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (')
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To: Gen.Blather
a retired alcoholic Detroit cop. He’d retired, he said, on full salary after 20 years...He said he was getting more money now

Did it ever occur to you that your friend just might be full of shit? 20 years? Why don't you ask him if his retirement was a disability retirement which was common amongst Detroit cops of his day. And for what it's worth, retired cops never received their contractual raises until the DPOA filed suit back in the 1990's and it took years before the court finally decided the lawsuit in favor of the DPOA in approx. 2002 and granted the retirees the monies they were entitled to, retroactive and payable in three year installments.

With that being said, ask your friend if he is receiving Social Security benefits?

As a side note, my dad retired from the DPOA in 1978 as an Executive Lieutenant........

33 posted on 07/28/2013 1:58:13 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (')
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To: OneWingedShark

That’s all fine but it has nothing to do with the State Constitution forbidding the change in pensions.


34 posted on 07/28/2013 5:06:59 PM PDT by McGavin999
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To: bert

I thought the only one who could issue law or rules regarding taxpayer dollars is the house of representatives. They hold the purse strings not the president.


35 posted on 07/28/2013 5:09:11 PM PDT by McGavin999
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To: McGavin999

That is in my view naive.

President will do as he pleases and will have reason and justification that will carry the day. The courts will not over rule his usurpation


36 posted on 07/28/2013 5:13:02 PM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
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To: McGavin999

The congress has already acted. It established the Pension Guarantee co. The president will pervert that money pot o take care of the Deetroit pensioners


37 posted on 07/28/2013 5:17:29 PM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
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To: Hot Tabasco

“Did it ever occur to you that your friend just might be full of shit? “

He was full of Scotch. I never saw him sober, not even in the morning. He was thoroughly unpleasant. He asked me questions about a gun I had in the bottom of my lowest dresser drawer, meaning he’d searched the place while I wasn’t there. I would never call somebody friend who told me he had beaten confessions out of people and obviously enjoyed it. He was disabled, but I have no idea from what or when. I’d suspect that Scotch was always his biggest disability.


38 posted on 07/28/2013 6:00:29 PM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: Hot Tabasco

Take your Michigan kool aid and go away. The idea that I was generalizing was way over your head. I don’t care to stoop down to your intel level. The unions never ever ever ever ever ever ever vote conservative in the majority ever. Sorry, facts are stubborn things. I am sorry for your friends. The writing was on the wall 30 years ago.


39 posted on 07/28/2013 6:20:44 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: Hot Tabasco

So your dad worked from roughly 1948 til 1978 - and you’re basing your inane comments on that time frame.
SHEEEEEEEEEEEEESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


40 posted on 07/28/2013 6:22:21 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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