On behalf of the city of Detroit, emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who was appointed by Governor Rick Snyder, has filed for bankruptcy.
DETROIT (AP) — Detroit on Thursday became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy, as the state-appointed emergency manager filed for Chapter 9 protection.
“Only one feasible path offers a way out,” Gov. Rick Snyder said in a letter to Orr and state Treasurer Andy Dillon, approving the bankruptcy.
Snyder determined earlier this year that Detroit was in a financial emergency and without a plan to improve things. He made it the largest U.S. city to fall under state oversight when a state loan board hired Orr in March. His letter was attached to Orr’s bankruptcy filing.
“The citizens of Detroit need and deserve a clear road out of the cycle of ever-decreasing services,” Snyder wrote. “The city’s creditors, as well as its many dedicated public servants, deserve to know what promises the city can and will keep. The only way to do those things is to radically restructure the city and allow it to reinvent itself without the burden of impossible obligations.”
You don’t need a crystal ball to see that allowing the city to “reinvent itself without the burden of impossible obligations” means public employees are most likely screwed.
If those who are left manage to keep their jobs, it’s a good bet their pensions will have diminished and their benefits eroded if not eliminated. And those who will probably go overlooked, such as children who attend public schools in Detroit, don’t stand a chance.
A city council or the mayor of Detroit may hesitate to irrevocably change the lives of their constituents for the worse, but no one elected Kevyn Orr.
There is nothing good about this.