Landmark moment in making: Judge to rule on Detroit bankruptcy
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday to announce his decision, which will be followed by the release of a written opinion.
Detroit is burdened by $18.5 billion in debt as it struggles to provide even the most basic services to the city's 700,000 residents. About 40 percent of the city's streetlights do not work and about 78,000 abandoned buildings litter the city, whose population peaked at 1.8 million in 1950.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/02/us-usa-detroit-bankruptcy-idUSBRE9B10ZJ20131202Illinois pension vote nears CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
The latest battle over Illinois pension reform is expected to come to a head on Tuesday in Springfield. Governor Quinn and legislative leaders are pushing hard for a "yes" vote. Meanwhile, opponents have been working to drum up opposition, including having retirees flood lawmakers offices before the vote. The outcome is still up in the air.
Opponents, though, hope to torpedo the plan. Union leaders say it's an unconstitutional limit on retirement promises made to public employees like teachers and firefighters. They say the cost of living cuts will make retirement impossible. Fiscal conservatives like the Illinois Policy Institute say it doesn't go far enough
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/24107531/illinois-pension-vote-nears
Comments
Thanks for posting. Detroit will be approved and most likely the pensioners will suffer, as will DIA. I think the state should float a bond issue and buy the art and keep it. Hell, I'd buy a bond.
Chicago? Mercy. The states pension fund is the most underfunded in the nation and they can't stop digging a hole. Michigan (state) switched to a DC pension about 17 years ago for new hires, those with less than 5 years, and optional buyout for the rest of the employees. Most stayed with the DB pension that could. New DC pension is 4% from state and they'll match up to 3% totalling 10% into a 401K. They also still have the 457, but that's deferred comp. Regardless, our state employees pension fund is one of the most solvent.
The nut with any employer is to not accrue legacy costs - be they pensions, benefits, infrastructure with no one to pay for it's upkeep . . . promises. Or better yet, Unfunded Liabilities.
Been saying for years that the total of UL is over $100 T and there is no politically viable way to cut it sufficiently nor raise taxes sufficiently to pay it off. That's why you're seeing the bankruptcies and entitlement cuts and where they can, the raising of taxes or other revenues. And that's why the FED is still monetizing as much as they can without imploding the currency and economy. Read somewhere some years back that they would have to monetize so much of the ULs that it would require halving the value of the dollar by the end of the decade. That seems to have been their plan all along - break promises, cut entitlements and raise taxes as much as possible and print money 24/7/365 and hope to not have things blow up.
and so it goes,
peace,
rono
Party on, dear friends, the end is near.
Alas, that's what I fear. The distribution of wealth is rapidly approaching that of czarist russia, unemployment is still over 20%, washington is cashing their lobbist paychecks, we now have an education system worse than Vietnam.
Oh, and BTW, all y'all can continue to short Illinois as their 'pension reform' ain't. They kept a DB pension across the board for one and all. Cretins. The very first thing you must do when you discover you're in a deep hole is to stop digging. duh. Be humane and change to DC pension for new hires and those that aren't vested so that going foward, all pensions are fund as you go and safe from incompetent politicians. Then you can attempt to deal with the legacy costs you've accrued.
And kids, the problem is police and fire pensions across the country. This is the ticking timebomb. They're almost all DB pension with everyone retiring at 50 w/30. Many allow spiking and this results in some pensions actually exceeding the highest annual salary the employee ever received. duh.
And with Detroit, the pensions were never excessive and extravagant but the funds were diverted by politicians.
and so it does,
peace,
rono