Detroit’s “debt is at least $18 billion. About $6 billion is Detroit Water and Sewerage Department debt, which is secured by water bill payments. An additional $12 billion is unsecured, meaning it’s not covered by a revenue stream. That includes about $2 billion in general obligation bond debt, $5.7 billion in unfunded retire health care obligations and $3.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities”
Like the mug shots of faded movie or TV stars, propped up by the booze that is killing them, pulled over for a second DUI, Detroit is not easy on the eye. The carpet bagger politicians, union leaders, city managers and administrators have moved to richer pickings, or jail.
They or their kind are in a thousand cities across America, where we read of retired police chiefs and city managers struggling to get by on $250,000 annual pensions, whilst the taxpayers who fund those pensions don’t have a pot to piss in.
A plague of locusts. When a city hears of redevelopment plans funded by bond schemes, they should lock up their wallets and run the crooks out of town, but most people either don’t participate in local politics, or they assume that their “public servants” are acting out of genuine concern and with the best intentions.
They should ask about the pensions, and ask themselves what they would do if their towns and cities were visited by the Detroit locusts.
Colin Bastable 