Thursday, July 11, 2013

Here Comes the Pain: Detroit To “Significantly Cut Vested Pensions” For Retirees




Before It's News | Popular Self-Sufficiency





Here Comes the Pain: Detroit To “Significantly Cut Vested Pensions” For Retirees



During the summer of 2011, as Ben Bernanke and his mainstream propaganda arm convinced Americans that green shoots were cropping up all over the nation, warnings of the coming destruction of America’s pension funds had begun to emerge.
Government employees may currently enjoy higher salaries and benefits than the private sector, but they have been given a false sense of security.
Whether you are a police officer, fireman, school teacher, or utility worker, you could have serious problems down the road.
Chances are that every major metropolitan area in the country is heavily in the red. This means that the jobs and retirement futures of millions of people are under threat.
[The only] option will be for ex-Federal governments to start reducing benefits and firing workers.
Just two years on we’re seeing the warnings manifest in the real world.
Once again, we focus the microscope on Detroit, which to those paying attention, is America’s canary in the coal mine signaling what’s to come for the rest of the country.
With the threat of a city bankruptcy looming, Detroit city workers and retirees are pushing back against the state-appointed emergency manager, filing lawsuits to limit his options and refusing to accept demands to keep details of their discussions secret.
One lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court in the state capital Lansing, seeks to stop Governor Rick Snyder from allowing the emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, to file Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. That lawsuit claims Orr’s plan to significantly cut vested pensions would violate strong protections in the Michigan constitution for retirement benefits of public-sector workers.

In his June 14 proposal to creditors, Orr listed pensions as unsecured debt of the city. Payment on pensions, retiree healthcare and $641 million of general obligation bonds all would be made from the city’s proceeds from $2 billion of notes Orr plans to sell as part of his restructuring plan.
The plan, if enacted, would be expected to result in significant cuts in pension payments.






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