Detroit Bankruptcy Trial Veers Off Course As Gov. Rick Snyder Takes Stand
By The Christian Science Monitor
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 9:21 EDT
In more than three hours of often-contentious testimony Monday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder defended his decision to move Detroit toward a Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
Governor Snyder was the fifth and final witness for the city, which is being sued in federal court by a coalition of groups that says the bankruptcy was not necessary. The case hinges on whether Snyder and the emergency manager he installed, Kevyn Orr, were justified in seeking the biggest bankruptcy for a municipality in US history.
Yet the most heated testimony often centered on a different issue – one unlikely to influence Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes in this case, but which could become the thrust of other legal cases to come. Labor unions, in particular, are worried that the bankruptcy is only a first step toward eviscerating city pensions.
Again and again, lawyers for the groups that oppose bankruptcy hammered Snyder and Mr. Orr on this point. And again and again, the two refused to take the bait.
The lawyers honed in on a proposal Orr submitted to creditors in June that put the city’s pension debt at $3.5 billion. Unions say the number is less than half that, and they maintain that a move to cut pensions would violate protections in the state constitution.
MORE...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/29/detroit-bankruptcy-trial-veers-off-course-as-gov-rick-snyder-takes-stand/
