Saved! Detroit Approved to Set Bankruptcy Plan in Action. The largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history is ending.
Federal Judge Steven Rhodes on Friday confirmed Detroit’s plan to emerge from Chapter 9 bankruptcy, allowing the city to erase a $7 billion mountain of unfunded debt and setting it on a course to try to revive its financial fortunes. Judge Rhodes approved the historic plan to a hushed courtroom shortly after 1 p.m. ET.
"The court confirms the plan," he told an audience that included city officials, creditors, and other onlookers. The plan comes with sacrifices. The case went through the courts faster than many had thought for something so massive and complex. With court's approval, Detroit emerges from bankruptcy. Detroit emerged Friday from the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy with a life line as it seeks to recover from an ocean of debt and mismanagement that threatened to drown the onetime symbol of U.S. industrial might.
The court approval of the city’s bankruptcy exit plan ends a painful chapter in Detroit history and opens new challenges as it grapples with urban blight, population flight and the decay of businesses. The decision also reaches beyond Detroit’s borders, affecting bond markets, touching on how much pension protection retired city workers can expect if their city goes bankrupt and offering a blueprint for how future municipal bankruptcies can be handled, experts said. Detroit Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes announced Friday that he had accepted the agreement negotiated by city and state officials as well as lawyers representing 100,000 creditors owed a staggering $18.5 billion.
“What happened in Detroit must never happen again,” he said. Bottom line after Detroit bankruptcy: 200 more police officers, 100 new firefighters. Chief U.S.
District Judge Gerald Rosen, lead Detroit bankruptcy mediator on adjustment plan Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, the lead bankruptcy mediator, thanks a large group of people who worked on Detroit's bankruptcy deal and sacrificed for the greater good during a press conference after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhode's confirmation of Detroit's plan of adjustment at Theodore Levin United States Courthouse in Detroit, Nov. 7, 2014 (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive Detroit) DETROIT, MI -- The city can now afford to hire more police and firefighters. That's the bottom line after a 16-month court process that came to a triumphant climax Friday with Detroit being authorized to shed $7 billion of debt. "There are going to be more than 200 additional police officers on the street as a result of the plan," said Mayor Mike Duggan.
Implementation of an elaborate, 10-year plan to restore long-broken city services is now possible after U.S. Others complied for fear of deeper cuts. 'A Crime': Groups Say Detroit Bankruptcy Plan Benefits Rich, Attacks Working People. A group of Detroit residents is condemning the city's newly-approved restructuring plan to exit bankruptcy as a deal that will further benefit the wealthy and corporate class while hurting working people.
As Democracy Now! Reported Monday: A Detroit judge has approved the city’s effort to restructure finances and shed around $7 billion in debt under its bankruptcy filing last year. The plan includes cuts to retiree pensions for city workers and around $660 million in funding from state and private sources. Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones said the city’s next phase of recovery should focus on community improvement.[...]The deal ends 16 months of bankruptcy proceedings. In his approval on Friday, U.S. A group called Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management, however, says the pension-cutting Plan of Adjustment is anything but fair. Detroit’s Bankruptcy Reflects a History of Racism. This is black history month. It is also the month that the Emergency Manager who took political power and control from the mostly African American residents of Detroit has presented his plan to bring the city out of the bankruptcy he steered it into.
This is black history in the making, and I hope the nation will pay attention to who wins and who loses from the Emergency Manager’s plan. Black people are by far the largest racial or ethnic population in Detroit, which has the highest percentage of black residents of any American city with a population over 100,000. Eighty-three percent of the city’s 701,000 residents are black. It continues to be an underreported story that a white state legislature and white governor took over the city and forced it to file for bankruptcy against the will of its elected representatives.
It’s important to view what is happening to Detroit and its public employees through a racial lens. Government was involved at a more micro level as well.