When I was growing up on the eastside of Detroit, my neighborhood was comprised primarily of municipal workers.  In fact, my parents were among the few adults not employed by the city of Detroit. My youth was spent mooching the benefits allotted to the children of Detroit’s firefighters and police officers, the status bestowed upon many of my friends. I attended the fire department’s Zoo Day at the Detroit Zoo and gained access to special rooftop views of the Detroit Fireworks.  I enjoyed a free coney dog on an occasion or two, ran through some illegally uncapped hydrants. I met important Detroit political figures and some sports ones too (though to be honest I often didn’t know who they were). I enjoyed all the peripheral perks befriending a city employee’s child could offer while my friends’ parents dutifully worked toward the perks they were expecting in the future, pensions and health care after retirement. Those perks were the reason people took the job in Detroit in the first place. The reason why after 1999 when Michigan lawmakers lifted the residency requirement for municipal employees, people who left the city continued to commute back down I-94 to their jobs in Detroit. Those perks are even the reason why a number of my childhood friends followed in their parents’ footsteps and became employees of the city we grew up in. Those perks meant a secure future for yourself and your family, that was until the future of Detroit became uncertain itself.  The threat to Detroit employee’s pensions has been steadily growing as Detroit began its very public decline. With Judge Rhodes ruling allowing Detroit to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, losses became almost certain. Emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr suggested “significant cuts” would be necessary, figures as high as 84 percent have been thrown around. Thats a lot considering the average pension is only $19,000. For many retirees, the monthly payment from the pension fund they contributed to for at least 20 years is their only income. They are not old enough to collect Social Security. Police offers and fire fighters receive only $30,000 and are not able to collect Social Security at all unless they have had an additional job through which they became eligible for those benefits.  In addition to  monthly payments being cut, Mr. Orr has announced that that health care benefits will be reduced as well. His proposal? Any retirees eligible for Medicare be enrolled in such and everyone else will receive $125 dollars stipend toward their healthcare. The proposed changes make retired  and current Detroit employees’ futures seem anything but secure. It also makes them seem like collateral damage in the salvaging of Detroit. I doubt any of them would have chosen to work for the city if they knew that the occasional free coney dog and a good spot to view fireworks would be the only real payoff in the end.   What remedy is really available now though, when even the voice of the elected officials has proven inadequate? Former and current Detroit employees (and possibly their social workers) have been turning to the courts to fight the battle for their pensions and health care benefits! We’ve finally made it to my point  …. but let’s talk about that next week,,,,

In the meantime, i kind of like this summary.