After Detroit, Another City Ponders Bankruptcy

ABC News ^ | July 8, 2014 | By JEFF KAROUB, AP

[Oldeconomybuyer]

As Detroit works to emerge from bankruptcy following a court-supervised overhaul, another Michigan city with strong auto industry bonds could be on the brink of beginning the same process, the latest sign that the spate of municipal defaults may not have ended.

If a judge rules against Flint's effort to cut its retiree health care benefits, the city is expected to join about a dozen cities or counties to seek court relief since the beginning of the recession.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

Born in Detroit? Check!

Lived in Flint? Check!

What’s next? Grand Rapids?

[max americana]

Hopeychangey!

[cripplecreek]

"If we don't get any relief in the courts ... we are headed over the same cliff as Detroit," said Darnell Earley, the emergency manager appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to manage Flint's finances. "We can't even sustain the budget we have if we have to put more money into health care" for city workers.

MMm MMM MMM Barack Hussein Obama MMM MMM MMM

[cripplecreek]

Flint this time.



Michigan legislative action thread

[Buckeye McFrog]

At the rate that Flint is losing population it may not even qualify as a city by the time this is all said and done.

Another 40,000 have left since I was there in the 90’s.

[cripplecreek]

Grand Rapids is in the red zone.

[all the best]

Detroit is not bankrupt. It is the city government of Detroit that is bankrupt. There is a big difference. However, the people and businesses of Detroit may not be too well off.
A place and the government of that place are two different entities. Confusing the two just elevates statism.

[martin_fierro]

The poster boy for advancing MI Union Excesses

[cripplecreek]

Detroit is not bankrupt. It is the city government of Detroit that is bankrupt.

Very astute point. There are actually a lot of good things going on in Detroit at the hands of the private sector. Its the little guys who can't get up because of the weight of city government on their backs.

[all the best]

A couple of years ago I realized the difference between a place and its government. A place, whether city, state or country, is its people, families, churches, businesses, etc. Then there is the government. Makes me mad when I hear of a city with a budget deficit, or a city hiring r not hiring, raising taxes. NO. It is the city government. Likewise the U.S. does not have a $17 trillion debt but the U.S. federal government. Which of course we are on the hook for.

[blueunicorn6]

Did Flint have decades of Democrat administration?

[RayChuang88]

The fear now is that Chicago could be the next city headed for a bankruptcy crisis—made worse by the fact Chicago, unlike Detroit, is a major transportation hub and as such should be financially very viable under more normal circumstances. But the huge pension obligations could end up forcing that city into bankruptcy.

[IC Ken]

The story is bigger than the media wants us to know. This is happening all over with small municipalities. They used accounting tricks to offset the costs of pensions and their effect on future budgets. Now many are going bankrupt and stiffing the ex workers on their pensions.

[IronJack]

Isn’t Flint the home of Michael “Tugboat” Moore? Nice to see his endless persecution of General Motors is paying off for the ole hometown.

[gr8eman]

Sorry...but Detroit is not a dictatorship...meaning the people who live there voted intentionally, or unintentionally for what they got, hence, they deserve it. All those crooked politicians in Detroit could have been put down. Look at what happened to Eric Cantor. Why did that never happen in Detroit or any of these other third world sh-thole cities in the US? That is because the peeps voted for themselves money from the treasury and it worked. Chicago is next...I hate Chicago!

[cripplecreek]

It is going to happen to other cities and I mean every last one of them.

[cripplecreek]

Detroit is the second busiest freight crossing on the continent but FReepers are to busy pointing and laughing to figure out how badly its hurting them.

[cripplecreek]

Detroit didn’t happen overnight. Its been in this shape for a very long time. Despite my personal dislike of Rick Snyder he forced this out into the open after others have simply kept it simmering. The same will come to pretty much every other large city nationwide. The majority of medium to small cities will also face this same fate. I sit here in the county and watch the city of Jackson Michigan struggle to patch the ever widening holes.

I live in a rural township of under 2000 people and even here holes are starting to develop. Its largely the result of outside forces. We don’t have a fire department or police force. No sewer system or water department but we have to contract things like police and fire to remain a township. The only other option is to be swallowed by another township when they’re already deeper in debt that we are.

We desperately need a reset back to prior to the 16th and 17th amendment.

[The Working Man]

So let’s get down to brass tacks here.

If you are retired or close to retirement then there is a potential loss of your retirement in the future as tax money gets scarcer, (in the arena of Government employee retirements). As a private arena employee your retirement is also in danger as corporations try desperately to shift retirement and health care onto the governments check.

Then of course they will try to minimize their tax liabilities in what ever manner they can.

End result no matter what, in a few years America as a whole; both government and private is going to be bankrupt. And the ‘legal’ citizen is going to still pay for it all. Or die... when they can’t. You notice I said legal... the Illegal’s are still going to get theirs...one way or another.