After all the faithful public service the court does this?
"Detroit’s obligation to pay pensions in full was not inviolable.... The judge made it clear that public employee pensions were not protected in a federal Chapter 9 bankruptcy, even though the Michigan Constitution expressly protects them.... “They’re gone.”
Translation: labor contracts mean nothing after all that hard work, so why bother with a union or collective bargaining anymore?
Oh, btw, the lobbyists that gutted your benefits get full state pensions that can not be touched.
"Judge allows Detroit’s bankruptcy filing to proceed; Ruling clears way for city to cut retirees’ pensions" by Monica Davey, Bill Vlasic and Mary Williams Walsh | New York Times, December 04, 2013
DETROIT — In a ruling that could reverberate far beyond Detroit, a federal judge held on Tuesday that this battered city could formally enter bankruptcy and asserted that Detroit’s obligation to pay pensions in full was not inviolable.
The judge, Steven Rhodes, dealt a major blow to the widely held belief that state laws make public pensions untouchable, and his ruling could resonate in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and many other US cities where the rising cost of pensions has been crowding out spending for public schools, police departments, and other services.
Yeah, those greedy public servants are the cause of everything -- or so says my banker's mouthpiece, apologist, and defender.
Related: Looting the Pension Funds; All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers
After they sold you badly-bundled crap mortgages they called triple A investments while betting against them at the same time. Now they are grabbing all the cash the Federal Reserve printed to buy back those packages of crap.
The judge made it clear that public employee pensions were not protected in a federal Chapter 9 bankruptcy, even though the Michigan Constitution expressly protects them. “Pension benefits are a contractual right and are not entitled to any heightened protection in a municipal bankruptcy,” he said.
What did you say about a contract?
James Spiotto, a lawyer with the firm Chapman & Cutler in Chicago who specializes in municipal bankruptcy and was not involved in the case, said: “No bankruptcy court had ruled that before. It will be instructive.”
Yeah, you faithful public servants are gonna learn real good. Welcome aboard when you finish the journey. You thought being loyal would protect you?
For people in Detroit, the birthplace of the Motown sound and of the American auto industry, Rhodes’s decision that the city qualified for bankruptcy amounted to one more miserable, if expected, assessment of its woeful circumstances. The city has lost hundreds of thousands of residents, the judge said, and its Police Department closes less than 9 percent of cases.
If they respond at all.
Related: Don't Go Knocking on Doors in Detroit
Or anywhere in AmeriKa, for that matter.
“This once proud and prosperous city can’t pay its debts,” said the judge, who sits in US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. “It’s insolvent. It’s eligible for bankruptcy. But it also has an opportunity for a fresh start.”
Appeals were expected to be filed quickly. At least one union filed a notice of appeal Tuesday, and other unions and pension fund representatives said they were considering contesting the outcome as well. But the ruling also allows Kevyn Orr, an emergency manager assigned in March by the state to oversee Detroit’s finances, to proceed swiftly with a formal plan for starting over — a proposal to pay off only a portion of its $18 billion in debts and to restore essential services, like streetlights, to tolerable levels.
Orr said he intended to file the formal blueprint by the first week of 2014. That plan could include efforts to spin off city departments to outside entities, to sell city assets, and to reinvest in failing city services. Orr has said his goal is to bring Detroit, the nation’s largest city ever to find itself in bankruptcy, out of the court process by next fall.
That means sell off taxpayer assets while privatizing government to benefit bu$ine$$ and corporations.
Around Detroit, leaders sounded somber but mildly hopeful tones. Mayor-elect Mike Duggan said that Tuesday was a day no one wanted to see, but that the city now needed to move forward. And Dave Bing, the departing mayor, whose tenure in office has been consumed by the financial distress, said it was inevitable that Detroit would ultimately be found insolvent. “We are now starting from square one,” he said.
Municipal workers and retirees said they were shaken by the developments, and unsure what to expect. Any cut to pensions, many said, would be crushing.
“The impact of this is going to be catastrophic on families like mine on fixed income,” said Brendan Milewski, 34, a Detroit firefighter who was seriously injured in an arson in 2010 and said he received a pension of $2,800 a month from the city. “Retirees are going to be put out of house and home.”
Government just picking up where banks left off.
Bruce Babiarz, a spokesman for the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System, was blunt in his assessment. “This is one of the strongest protected pension obligations in the country here in Michigan,” he said. “If this ruling is upheld, this is the canary in a coal mine for protected pension benefits across the country. They’re gone.”
After all that hard work and service.
In perhaps the most contested portion of the case, the judge made it clear that federal bankruptcy law trumps the state law when it comes to protections for public employees’ pensions, making the pensions of about 23,000 retirees fair game for the city to include in its plan of adjustment.
That seems unconstitutional to me.
But while the judge said pensions could not be treated differently from other unsecured debt, he said the court would be careful before approving any cuts in monthly payments to retirees.
So you are in the good graces of a court or judge, folks. Feeling secure?
Specialists said the decision seemed unlikely to prompt a rush of bankruptcy filings by cities, but was likely to give cities more leverage over pensions in negotiations before bankruptcies. Detroit has included $3.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities in its larger mound of debt, and city lawyers say it can simply no longer afford its pension plan.
Is it the same scam they are using to destroy the Post Office?
I'm sure Kilpatrick's reign didn't help.
--more--"
I wouldn't worry; help is on the way.
"Illinois lawmakers approve fix for $100b pension crisis; Unions vow suit as retirees will get smaller check" by Sara Burnett and Kerry Lester | Associated Press, December 04, 2013
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Legislature approved a historic plan Tuesday to eliminate the state’s $100 billion pension shortfall, a vote that proponents described as critical to repairing the state’s deeply troubled finances but that faces the immediate threat of a legal challenge from labor unions.
The House voted 62 to 53 in favor of the plan, sending it to Governor Pat Quinn, who has said he will sign it. The Senate approved the measure 30 to 24 just minutes earlier.
‘‘There will be changes here, much-needed changes, but this bill is a well thought out, well-balanced bill that deserves the support of this body, the state Senate, and the approval of Governor Quinn,” House Speaker Michael Madigan said at the start of the House debate. ‘‘Something’s got to be done. We can’t go on dedicating so much of our resources to this one sector of pensions.”
Public employee unions, which oppose the bill, vowed to quickly take legal action. They say the legislation is unfair to workers and retirees who for years made faithful contributions to retirement systems but now will see benefits cut because of government mismanagement. They also contend that parts of the measure are unconstitutional.
Hey, YOU MUST PAY for THEIR MISTAKES here in AmeriKa!
‘‘This is no victory for Illinois, but a dark day for its citizens and public servants,” the We Are One Illinois union coalition said in a statement soon after the votes. ‘‘Teachers, caregivers, police, and others stand to lose huge portions of their life savings because politicians chose to threaten their retirement security, rather than pass a much fairer, legal, negotiated solution.”
Join the ever-growing club.
Illinois’s unfunded pension problem is considered the worst in the nation, primarily because lawmakers failed for decades to make the state’s full payments to the funds.
Anyone go to jail for that?
The massive unfunded liability has led the major credit rating agencies to downgrade Illinois’s rating to the lowest of any state in the nation.
The same agencies that rated mortgage-backed security bundles triple A when they were crap? You know, the same ones the pension system bought.
It has also siphoned money from education, road projects, and other areas.
You damn greedy public servants!
Yet for years, lawmakers have been unable to agree on how to fix the problem.
The measure approved Tuesday emerged last week following negotiations by a bipartisan pension conference committee and then meetings of Illinois’ legislative leaders.
Oh, they can come together and work together to take back your promised pensions! Hurray for biparti$anship!
They say it will save the state $160 billion over 30 years and fully fund the systems by 2044....
Why worry about it after the ruling in Detroit?
--more--"
Oh, finally, a safe pa$$age in Illinois!
Also see: Do Boston police deserve a 25 percent raise?
I would be very careful moving around the city these days if I were her. Don't be surprised to see a citation on the car if you drive one.
Parity shouldn’t be the basis for setting police and fire wages
Hey, we can always go back in and readjust everything later. It's not like it's inviolable or anything.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Boston City Council approves hefty police pay raise
The 12-0 vote shows they also want no trouble with the police.
