Posted on 07/19/2013 2:23:28 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A Michigan judge ruled today that Detroit filing for chapter 9 bankruptcy on Thursday was unconstitutional. Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said the filing must be withdrawn and that, according to the Detroit Free Press, the governor and city emergency manager “must take no further actions that threaten to diminish the pension benefits of City of Detroit retirees.”
The reduction in those particular benefits is at issue here, due to a portion of the Michigan Constitution that reads [PDF]:
“The accrued financial benefits of each pension plan and retirement system of the state and its political subdivisions shall be a contractual obligation thereof which shall not be diminished or impaired thereby.”
The judge interpreted this passage to declare the bankruptcy filing unconstitutional, though this piece in the Detroit News argues that it may not be that clear-cut.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Bill Schuette is appealing the decision to the Michigan Court of Appeals and requesting the orders stayed for the time being.
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I am..........35 years at Connor and Charlevoix.
There is a provision in the Michigan State Constitution that says that public employees' pensions must be honored.
That's over-concentration. Any CFA worth his salt will tell you it's a bad idea.
You'd be in better shape if your employer's pension contributions had instead been paid to you, and you had used them to purchase a diversified portfolio of investments.
Current government employees vs. pensioners. It’s going to happen all over the country before long. There’s no other group with enough government funding to fight over. Teachers, regulators, police and others against those who retired. The retirees will lose first, because favored constituents want to keep services going.
“If my company were to file bankruptcy and try to terminate or reduce my guaranteed pension, that would financially destroy me.”
And what makes you think that you are so special? I too had my retirement set up ( no pensions for me, I had to provide for my own retirement by my own means) and I was starting to draw on my investments in retirement. Life was good, and it was easy to see that we would have enough to see us to the end of our lives. Then 2007 came along and we watched 30% of what we had invested evaporate!. And at the same time saw earnings on what was left drop precipitously. So buddy, as far as I am concerned, if you loose your retirement, it’s just tough $h!t! If it happens, be a big boy and figure out how you are going to survive, that’s what we have had to do.
How many other cities have filed for bankruptcy?
Bankruptcy is illegal and Unconstitutional.....unless it is a citizen.
in that case, bleed em dry.
The judge can find that in the Constitution but they cannot interpret “shall not be infringed”?
Ahhh, I got it now! You got screwed on your OWN personal investments, just as I DID, and now you have no problem with me or anyone else losing our company's CONTRACTUALLY GUARANTEED pension plan, the plan we worked 35 years for.
There's a big difference between our personal savings and investments, WHICH BOTH YOU AND I HAD, and one's company pension plan, which obviously YOU didn't have and and thus have no sympathy for someone who did.......
Evidently MISERY DOES like company bro, you're one sick dude...........
Do you feel the same way about Social Security? If the govt. can no longer make it's payments to us retirees, is your attitude still "screw you, suck it up"???????
LOL!
Using an absurd interpretation of the Constitution to protect her own pension.
“I guess this judge expect the city to create money out of thin air.”
No, the judge expects the city should not commit to spending money it doesn’t and won’t have. Having unlimited taxing authority means prolific spending obligations cannot be dodged via bankruptcy.
The people voted these politicians into power, knowing what kind of spending commitments they would enact. The politicians committed to insane spending - no surprise. Having gotten what they voted for, don’t renege on contracts and don’t put the rest of us on the hook for making up for the disparity.
She done good. The people of Detroit elected the politicians to shit in their bed, and now the people of Detroit can lie in it - don’t make us clean it up.
Let the nation know what Democrat promises result in. Don’t let them shirk their responsibility.
These idiots are going to force us to take them seriously.
....$18B is chump change.
Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, Buffalo...doesn't matter...
...monopoly money for all!
"Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another".
It sounded like a big, sloppy, juicy Obama butt-kiss to me.
This has happened to just about everyone in the airline industry, including me. The main reason my airline wanted to declare bankruptcy was so it could declare all union contracts null & void. After several attempts (the government kept stalling them), they finally were able to do it and then cut all the pensions. I’ll be lucky if I get 25¢ a month for my years there. I fully expect the PBGC (and Social Security) to be ancient history by the time I retire. But we Gen Xers have known this all our lives...that we’re paying into a Ponzi scheme and will never see a dime of it in return.
Oh yes...special save detroit tax comming soon
Well said, agree 100% !
.... Big difference in a 401k investment / savings and a Defined Benefit Pension Plan......
Are not all pensions guaranteed as in a defined benefit plan ?
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pensionreform.html
Several, but none the size of Detroit.
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