Detroit Residents Shutdown Bogus Panel: Condemns Forced Bankruptcy and Theft of Public Resources
Watch this WDIV report on the shutting down of the bogus post-bankruptcy panel at Wayne State University:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/detroit-bankruptcy-one-year-later/36888346
http://www.freep.com/…/deroit-bankruptcy-annivers…/77052694/
PANW Editor's Note: A sham panel on the first year after the Detroit bankruptcy held at Wayne State University was shutdown by angry residents. A picket line protesting the event began an hour before the program was scheduled to start.
Members of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition, MECAWI, FIST, DAREA, Detroit Eviction Defense and other students, youth and community people marched across the entrance area on Cass. Later many of the demonstrators went into the auditorium to challenge the false narrative put forward by Gov. Snyder and retired Federal Judge Rhodes.
Snyder and Rhodes were both cut short due to loud objections from the audience. The first white bank-imposed occupant of the mayor's office in forty years, Mike Duggan, was too frightened to come on the stage and the program was cancelled after Rhodes was forced off the podium at the Community Arts Auditorium.
Most people in Detroit reject the corporate media misrepresentations and blatant lies being told about the actual conditions in the city where poverty, joblessness and homelessness is increasing amid the forced removals of thousands of African Americans and other working people due to property tax foreclosures, water shut-offs and economic desperation.
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Shouting, reflection mark first year free of bankruptcy
Matthew Dolan, Detroit Free Press 12:26 a.m. EST December 10, 2015
Wayne State event to assess the effects of the city's bankruptcy cut short after protesters drowned out scheduled speakers including governor, former presiding judge.
Detroit marks one year of freedom today from the nation's largest bankruptcy, but overflowing passions at an event Wednesday night to discuss the state of the city showed some residents remain angered and disappointed by the outcome.
To be sure, the City of Detroit is financially solvent with thousands of new streetlights and its historic art collection preserved. Pensioners get paid despite cuts and key city services have shown signs of improvement. The city's budget is balanced. There is even an expected surplus.
Still, the city is struggling to find new solutions to old problems: endemic blight, vacant land, high crime, struggling schools and a looming pension bill that city leaders are struggling to pay off.
"I think the city is on the road to recovery," James Spiotto, one of the nation's leading experts on municipal bankruptcy, said in an interview. "But it would be shortsighted to say that it is already recovered."
Protesters shouted from nearly the beginning of a community event at Wayne State University on Wednesday night featuring the architects of Detroit's bankruptcy plan. Organizers stopped the event after about an hour. A featured speaker, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, never reached the stage.
A group of protesters were outside a whole hour at Wayne State University before an event about Detroit's bankruptcy.
To mark the anniversary, the Detroit Journalism Cooperative and Detroit Public Television invited Duggan, Gov. Rick Snyder and retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, who oversaw the court case, to offer their assessments of the city's progress. Future radio and television segments on the event were planned, organizers had said.
But several presentations on the WSU campus were interrupted by some angry members of the crowd of more than 200 who questioned whether the bankruptcy had been legitimate and successful.
The event inside an auditorium seating 500 was expected to last about 90 minutes but was shut down after an hour. The truncated public discussion concluded after some in the crowd shouted so loudly that Judge Rhodes could not be heard.
The protests became inflamed in large measure after Snyder took the stage and defended the city's entrance and exit from bankruptcy as a last resort but a necessary one. "We eventually got to bankruptcy, but that was after three years" of efforts to fix the city's balance sheet outside of court, the governor said.
After he described how his administration has tried to help pension holders affected by cuts to their retirement checks, one protester called out, "That's pure baloney. ... It is a disaster."
The event continued a bit unsteadily. It was brought to an unexpected close after Rhodes' interview on stage could no longer be heard by audience members.
Future bills
Before he stopped speaking, Rhodes said that the early signs show success for Detroit post-bankruptcy, though he expressed concerns about the city's large future bill to pay city pensions and its ailing public school system.
Detroit native Thaddeus Shakoor, who attended the event, said he found the conclusion disheartening.
"I was totally disappointed. They killed it for the rest of us," said Shakoor, 73, who drove to the Detroit event from his home in Southfield.
Cohost Stephen Henderson, who is also the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, said afterward that the decision to cut the event short was made by WDET officials who helped organize the discussion.
It was unclear whether the program, which was live-streamed over the Internet, will still air on television and radio.
How other cities fared
Though some expressed frustration with Detroit's ride through bankruptcy, experts say a number of cities and counties that have tried to use the most severe form of municipal financial reorganization, Chapter 9 bankruptcy, have not been nearly as successful as Detroit.
Jefferson County, Ala., for example, left bankruptcy in 2013 but is struggling today after cuts to municipal services and an unsteady borrowing forecast even after its $1.3 billion of debt was cleared from its books by the court.
Stockton, Calif., spent more than two years in bankruptcy court before exiting in February. Voters in the city about 80 miles from San Francisco approved a sales tax increase to pay for more police officers, while more than 1,000 workers and retirees who had more than $500 million in claims agreed to settle for about $5 million.
Since the 1980s, there have been 295 Chapter 9 filings and most of them involved municipal utilities and special tax districts, Spiotto said. Only 54 have been cities, towns, villages or counties. Most who file end up having their bids rejected by the court or end up finding an alternate solution outside of a bankruptcy judge's approved exit plan.
So Detroit's full ride through the process remains an exception. Still, its success or failure may not be seen for years, experts say,
"The real test is going to be five or ten years from now," Spiotto said. Key issues to watch are whether the city has under control the spiraling costs and dwindling tax revenue that forced its march into bankruptcy court.
Pension cutbacks
The bankruptcy case allowed Detroit government to cut more than $7 billion in unsecured liabilities and pour $1.4 billion over 10 years into basic services to rehabilitate the city reeling from a decades-long population exodus, disinvestment and cash drain. At one time, the city's liabilities were estimated at more than $18 billion before creditors and pension holders took a financial haircut.
Some, especially retirees, remain embittered by pension cutbacks. But those who designed and approved the plan praise the city's hard-fought decisions forged in bankruptcy as a financial reckoning years overdue.
The centerpiece of the bankruptcy blueprint was the so-called grand bargain, an $816-million investment by the State of Michigan, some of the nation's leading foundations and the Detroit Institute of Arts to preserve the city-owned art museum collection in exchange for helping to pay down the city's crushing employee pension debt.
Despite the grand bargain's success, the future of the city's pension funds, whose investments performed below expectations in the first year after bankruptcy, remains worrisome.
Under the plan, most pensioners were hit with 4.5% cuts on their monthly checks, the elimination of annual cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increases, and a clawback in excessive interest from annuity savings. Police and fire pensioners saw a reduction only in their COLA increases. Without the grand bargain, the cuts would have been much worse, city leaders said.
Improving financial picture
Many say it's hard to know whether the city will remain on the rise after less than a year from court protection. But Moody's — a leading credit rating agency — sees a city modestly outpacing early expectations.
"Over the past 12 months, the city's economic and fiscal profiles have improved as indicated by growing employment and updated revenue estimates topping initial projections, both a credit positive," Moody's said in a new report.
The credit agency concluded that "city leaders and management are taking aggressive steps to revitalize the economy and sustain the current positive trends. These efforts are aimed at generating much needed revenue growth to meet notable expenditure obligations over the next eight years."
Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewsdolan
 |
| City of Detroit retiree and DAREA President Bill Davis spoke out against pension thefts and the illegal forced bankruptcy of the city. |
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/detroit-bankruptcy-one-year-later/36888346
http://www.freep.com/…/deroit-bankruptcy-annivers…/77052694/
PANW Editor's Note: A sham panel on the first year after the Detroit bankruptcy held at Wayne State University was shutdown by angry residents. A picket line protesting the event began an hour before the program was scheduled to start.
Members of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition, MECAWI, FIST, DAREA, Detroit Eviction Defense and other students, youth and community people marched across the entrance area on Cass. Later many of the demonstrators went into the auditorium to challenge the false narrative put forward by Gov. Snyder and retired Federal Judge Rhodes.
Snyder and Rhodes were both cut short due to loud objections from the audience. The first white bank-imposed occupant of the mayor's office in forty years, Mike Duggan, was too frightened to come on the stage and the program was cancelled after Rhodes was forced off the podium at the Community Arts Auditorium.
Most people in Detroit reject the corporate media misrepresentations and blatant lies being told about the actual conditions in the city where poverty, joblessness and homelessness is increasing amid the forced removals of thousands of African Americans and other working people due to property tax foreclosures, water shut-offs and economic desperation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shouting, reflection mark first year free of bankruptcy
Matthew Dolan, Detroit Free Press 12:26 a.m. EST December 10, 2015
Wayne State event to assess the effects of the city's bankruptcy cut short after protesters drowned out scheduled speakers including governor, former presiding judge.
Detroit marks one year of freedom today from the nation's largest bankruptcy, but overflowing passions at an event Wednesday night to discuss the state of the city showed some residents remain angered and disappointed by the outcome.
To be sure, the City of Detroit is financially solvent with thousands of new streetlights and its historic art collection preserved. Pensioners get paid despite cuts and key city services have shown signs of improvement. The city's budget is balanced. There is even an expected surplus.
Still, the city is struggling to find new solutions to old problems: endemic blight, vacant land, high crime, struggling schools and a looming pension bill that city leaders are struggling to pay off.
"I think the city is on the road to recovery," James Spiotto, one of the nation's leading experts on municipal bankruptcy, said in an interview. "But it would be shortsighted to say that it is already recovered."
Protesters shouted from nearly the beginning of a community event at Wayne State University on Wednesday night featuring the architects of Detroit's bankruptcy plan. Organizers stopped the event after about an hour. A featured speaker, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, never reached the stage.
A group of protesters were outside a whole hour at Wayne State University before an event about Detroit's bankruptcy.
To mark the anniversary, the Detroit Journalism Cooperative and Detroit Public Television invited Duggan, Gov. Rick Snyder and retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, who oversaw the court case, to offer their assessments of the city's progress. Future radio and television segments on the event were planned, organizers had said.
But several presentations on the WSU campus were interrupted by some angry members of the crowd of more than 200 who questioned whether the bankruptcy had been legitimate and successful.
The event inside an auditorium seating 500 was expected to last about 90 minutes but was shut down after an hour. The truncated public discussion concluded after some in the crowd shouted so loudly that Judge Rhodes could not be heard.
The protests became inflamed in large measure after Snyder took the stage and defended the city's entrance and exit from bankruptcy as a last resort but a necessary one. "We eventually got to bankruptcy, but that was after three years" of efforts to fix the city's balance sheet outside of court, the governor said.
After he described how his administration has tried to help pension holders affected by cuts to their retirement checks, one protester called out, "That's pure baloney. ... It is a disaster."
The event continued a bit unsteadily. It was brought to an unexpected close after Rhodes' interview on stage could no longer be heard by audience members.
Future bills
Before he stopped speaking, Rhodes said that the early signs show success for Detroit post-bankruptcy, though he expressed concerns about the city's large future bill to pay city pensions and its ailing public school system.
Detroit native Thaddeus Shakoor, who attended the event, said he found the conclusion disheartening.
"I was totally disappointed. They killed it for the rest of us," said Shakoor, 73, who drove to the Detroit event from his home in Southfield.
Cohost Stephen Henderson, who is also the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, said afterward that the decision to cut the event short was made by WDET officials who helped organize the discussion.
It was unclear whether the program, which was live-streamed over the Internet, will still air on television and radio.
How other cities fared
Though some expressed frustration with Detroit's ride through bankruptcy, experts say a number of cities and counties that have tried to use the most severe form of municipal financial reorganization, Chapter 9 bankruptcy, have not been nearly as successful as Detroit.
Jefferson County, Ala., for example, left bankruptcy in 2013 but is struggling today after cuts to municipal services and an unsteady borrowing forecast even after its $1.3 billion of debt was cleared from its books by the court.
Stockton, Calif., spent more than two years in bankruptcy court before exiting in February. Voters in the city about 80 miles from San Francisco approved a sales tax increase to pay for more police officers, while more than 1,000 workers and retirees who had more than $500 million in claims agreed to settle for about $5 million.
Since the 1980s, there have been 295 Chapter 9 filings and most of them involved municipal utilities and special tax districts, Spiotto said. Only 54 have been cities, towns, villages or counties. Most who file end up having their bids rejected by the court or end up finding an alternate solution outside of a bankruptcy judge's approved exit plan.
So Detroit's full ride through the process remains an exception. Still, its success or failure may not be seen for years, experts say,
"The real test is going to be five or ten years from now," Spiotto said. Key issues to watch are whether the city has under control the spiraling costs and dwindling tax revenue that forced its march into bankruptcy court.
Pension cutbacks
The bankruptcy case allowed Detroit government to cut more than $7 billion in unsecured liabilities and pour $1.4 billion over 10 years into basic services to rehabilitate the city reeling from a decades-long population exodus, disinvestment and cash drain. At one time, the city's liabilities were estimated at more than $18 billion before creditors and pension holders took a financial haircut.
Some, especially retirees, remain embittered by pension cutbacks. But those who designed and approved the plan praise the city's hard-fought decisions forged in bankruptcy as a financial reckoning years overdue.
The centerpiece of the bankruptcy blueprint was the so-called grand bargain, an $816-million investment by the State of Michigan, some of the nation's leading foundations and the Detroit Institute of Arts to preserve the city-owned art museum collection in exchange for helping to pay down the city's crushing employee pension debt.
Despite the grand bargain's success, the future of the city's pension funds, whose investments performed below expectations in the first year after bankruptcy, remains worrisome.
Under the plan, most pensioners were hit with 4.5% cuts on their monthly checks, the elimination of annual cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increases, and a clawback in excessive interest from annuity savings. Police and fire pensioners saw a reduction only in their COLA increases. Without the grand bargain, the cuts would have been much worse, city leaders said.
Improving financial picture
Many say it's hard to know whether the city will remain on the rise after less than a year from court protection. But Moody's — a leading credit rating agency — sees a city modestly outpacing early expectations.
"Over the past 12 months, the city's economic and fiscal profiles have improved as indicated by growing employment and updated revenue estimates topping initial projections, both a credit positive," Moody's said in a new report.
The credit agency concluded that "city leaders and management are taking aggressive steps to revitalize the economy and sustain the current positive trends. These efforts are aimed at generating much needed revenue growth to meet notable expenditure obligations over the next eight years."
Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewsdolan
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