Frankly I'm hoping he runs for governor some day.
Michigan legislative action thread
Lawyers have a higher obligation and this lawyer is living up to it. When the lawyers run the government, this is what happens.
The idea that these retirees don’t share the blame is just absurd. They voted in politicians promising benefits that any thinking adult knows would never be sustainable. Ignorance is no defense....
Those stupid pie-in-the-sky promises need to be nipped in the bud. They are about $9 billion of the $11 billion debt obligations.
Idiot!! There are all KINDS of promises and contracts that NEED to be broken.
the account is drained; there is no money.
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.
Unbridled greed is, however, a very effective way to build bubbles, and when it's used to manage governments, those bubbles eventually pop like a brain aneurism.
Welcome to Detroit. Welcome to Amerika.
It maybe law, but the rest of us Smucks pick up the tab for Detroit's Theft, Corruption, and Insubordination? Are you kidding me?
Where is the X number of Billion that the Pensions are short going to come from @ the State Level?
We can't even get the Legislature to come up with a couple of Billion over 10 years to finally fix and upgrade Michigan roads?
Where is the magic bullet of inflows to the State Coffers to make this up? Are you going to "Frac" Michigan until it looks like a Spagetti Collander to get the tax revenue?
Dangerous precident here, just like GM and what they did with their Pensions and it will have set a template for other States.
Look I have been with firms that were going south and had the attenna up enough to know to get the heck out, So why should I hold the bag for these civil servants? Didn't they see it coming? If they don't have ERISA backing ( which I hear is correct ) maybe they need to self insure or purchase insurance on their pensions in the future. Once they see the rates on that, then maybe they will hire some Fiduciaries with some common sense...
If some court demands that Detroit pensioners’ pension funds must be “made whole”
(that the funds are legally owed ALL unfunded liabilities related to prior pension agreemnets)
then
THAT is something that can ONLY be accomplished
(a) gradually over time [not likely to be made whole immediately, in the short term, and maybe not in a decade) and
(b) with immediate and long term adjustments to the pensions of all new city employees (the same promises cannot be made to them)
OR ELSE the fiscal recovery of Detroit and its ability to eventually meet those obligations AND OPERATE will not be possible.
Meeting the unfunded obligations of pensioners already in the pension funds is only possible with a plan that ONLY expects to make them whole by the time all current unretired city employees in the plans actually retire, by closing all the current pension plans to new employees, and making lower pension promises to all new employees and using some of the savings to help pay off the underfunded pension liabilities the city did not pay enough on in prior years.
The city’s response to the attorney general should be clear, that it can only meet him one quarter of the way -
(1) past promises to people already in the plans will be meet,
(2) but that will only occur, financially, in time, over many years, possibly lasting until the last of those already in the plans retire, and
(3) all current pension plans will be closed to new employees; new employees will be given different pension plans with lower promises than what was made to city employees in the past.
What higher office is this guy planning on running for?
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.
“...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.
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!!!!
So Michigan can go bankrupt also it seems.