Page 839 - Pensions News Today

Would violate the states constitution to use bankruptcy to try to reduce the pensions which are poise ily r -- supposedly guaranteed to the workers. the judge ruled in favor of the workers. the state is appealing. what do you think? is it legal to use bankruptcy to negotiate pensions? >> certainly. it has been used before. chapter 9 bankruptcy, patti ann, is not use ad lot but specifically designed in reference to municipalities government entities such as this. what happened on friday, the judg...

Douglas mack tire saying if the residents of detroit want to blame any person or organization they only need to look as far as unions that controlled labor there and politicians who ran it over the last four decades. what do you think about that? >> well, certainly we have government. we elect officials. we have people that are supposed to manage our monies. theyre supposed to invest the money properly for pensions and security of public employees. theyre supposed to make sure. i grew up in pitt...

Pension benefits because he did not intend to attempt to set aside the state constitution. you know, many of our retirees have very meager pensions. the average pension for police and fire is supposed to be in the area of $30,000 a year. a number of the members we represent have in the area from $1,000 to $1500 a month. any reduction could be devastating to these elderly people on these fixed incomes. >> do you have any hope -- i mean, here you have a number of people involved in this, judges. t...

Any other town that is in a similar scenario now? >> well, for example, rahm emanuel, as you know is the mayor of chicago now, has been telling the unions now for the last couple of years, look, weve got to renegotiate these pensions. weve got to do something to make sure we dont look at a detroit scenario. another big city is oakland that is in a lot of financial trouble. one of the ways to kind of divert the bankruptcy option is deal with the problem of pensions now. the tragedy of detroit the...

♪ you and me ♪ detroit, one of americas industrial mites, may be a tale of what is ahead for other cities struggling with debt. $18 billion in debt, including billions for pensions and benefits for city workers. a bankruptcy of this scale is historic. there are concerns the same problems that did in detroit could happen across the country. charles payne is here to lend us expertise on this. good to see you. >> good to see you as well. although on a sad topic. we all saw this coming. low ha...

Still. 40% of detroits revenues go toward retirement benefits and to debt accrued to pay for those pensions. they have $18 billion in debt and where are you getting that money? detroit residents pay the highest property tax, highest income taxes in the state. what other options does detroit have? >> well, this whole process, the reason why the unions are upsetting everybody else because they feel this all should have been a process of negotiations on filing chapter 9. what happens essentially. i...

Or mismanaged for many, many years. this country is being mismanaged. you know, maybe detroit is just a smaller image of what this country is, because we have the same thinking with the united states as they had in detroit. now, detroit had no choice and its going to be interesting to see what happens. you have a judge now saying they cant do that. but of course what difference does it make, theyre not going to pay, they dont have the money, they have nothing, and they have to do it. and theyre ...

Ive been to two or three meetings. the indications weve received through those meetings relating to police and fire pensions, they werent referring to any wholesale cuts at those meetings. they were referring to maybe a freeze or eliminating the cost of living increase. of course, his original statement has changed. >> well, theres a lot of uncertainty. well continue to watch. thank you so much for your time. we wish you the best. >> thank you. >> absolutely. >> thank you. in riley, north caro...

>> city of detroit. bill: youve been making the decisions for 60 years as the governor said. stephen moore, senior writer "wall street journal." good morning to you. this is a big deal. you imagine people, they worked their lives. they go into retirement. the money they are receiving could be cut significantly. what happens? >> it sure could, bill. this really is a tragic story. you know, lets face it, detroit always has been one of americas iconic industrial cities. to see this decline is just ...

Imagine, are now concerned about losing benefits that they rely on. albert is the president of michigan council 25 of the federation of state and county and municipal employees. i understand you represent about 3,000 detroit city workers. you are also a detroit native, i understand, mr. garrett. first of all, what have you been telling your members in the wake of what happened last thursday? >> well, essentially what we have said to our members is, number one, that we are going to fight the bank...