[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70667000/jpg/_70667521_detroit.protest.getty.jpg[/img]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24638681[/url]
[quote]A federal judge is hearing arguments over whether Detroit city should be granted protection from its creditors.
In opening remarks, Bruce Bennett, the lead attorney for Detroit, said there was a "mountain of evidence showing the insolvency of the city".
But representatives for the city's unions and pension funds disagree and say the city is solvent.
With $18bn (£11bn) of liabilities, Detroit's case is the biggest municipal bankruptcy filing in US history.
The case to determine whether or not Detroit can continue with its bankruptcy filing is expected to last anywhere from five to 10 days.[/quote]
I wouldn't be surprised if the population hit 600,000 by the end of the decade.
People are trying to argue that the city can pay off their debts when we've got ambulances limping by with 200,000 miles on them
So if they do go bankrupt, who's going to be the ones seizing the assets.
And what assets are there to even seize? Or am I completely in the wrong on how bankrupt cities work?
[QUOTE=Eva-1337;42628262]So if they do go bankrupt, who's going to be the ones seizing the assets.
And what assets are there to even seize? Or am I completely in the wrong on how bankrupt cities work?[/QUOTE]
This:
[quote][B]What is Chapter 9?[/B]
In many ways, a Chapter 9 filing is akin to Chapters 11 and 13 of the bankruptcy code, which deal with business and personal reorganizations, respectively. Under all three scenarios, debtors get a reprieve for paying creditors while they propose and implement a restructuring plan. But unlike private citizens and companies, municipalities are sovereign entities, which present an unusual wrinkle, Adams says.
"Realistically, the court doesn't have as much power to force the city to do anything," Adams says. "So, unlike other provisions of the bankruptcy code where the creditors have a vote on the reorganization plan, the city has a lot more latitude."
Once a municipality is bankrupt, it can cut costs, which usually means fewer services such as firefighting, garbage collection and library branches. Or it can increase revenue by raising taxes. Usually, it's a combination of both, Adams says. But real change is often a matter of political will.
[B]What happens to services?[/B]
"Municipal bankruptcies usually mean a reduction in the size, scope and quality of services because that's where the biggest costs are," says Adams.
But the bad economy has forced many cities to cut services to the bone, says Luis Salazar, a bankruptcy lawyer in Coral Gables, Fla., who served as a city councilman in Leonia, N.J., when that town faced a budget crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
[B]What happens to taxes?[/B]
While increased revenue would be a boon to any city facing bankruptcy, it's unclear whether taxes would go up immediately. For one thing, "You're asking people to pay more at a time when they are getting fewer services," Salazar says.
Even if a city can muster the political will to raise taxes, doing so may not help revenues, says Dennis Hoffman, an economics professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.
[/quote]
[url]http://www.bankrate.com/finance/economics/city-files-bankruptcy-1.aspx[/url]
it's going to get nuked
[QUOTE=breakyourfac;42628016]People are trying to argue that the city can pay off their debts when we've got ambulances limping by with 200,000 miles on them[/QUOTE]
Mileage is irrelevant. It's maintenance, or a lack thereof because there's no way in hell a city filing bankruptcy can afford to maintain them properly, that makes them limping by. Also, 200K seems to be awfully low for an ambulance given their intended line of duty.
Its the working man and retiree who will be getting screwed over the most. No question.
This seems like Austerity.
Like instead of the IMF and Greece it is Michigan and Detroit.
[QUOTE=Adlertag1940;42628440]it's going to get nuked[/QUOTE]
please don't nuke me
If it werent for all the innocent people getting screwed, id be laughing my ass off at yet another display of american ineptitude.
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