Closing pensions a litmus test for Detroit reform

By Jack McHugh | for Michigan Capitol Confidential

A Detroit money-grant and reformlegislative package just introduced in the Michigan House contains dozens of new institutional arrangements, but just two critical and concrete changes to the city’s finances, one of which is both long term and potentially transformational all by itself: Ending the practice of granting new city employees traditional defined benefit pensions.

Guess which provision is being attacked by defenders of the Detroit status quo, including unions, special interests and the city’s political class?

Yet whether the reform package represents something more than just a cover story for delivering more loot to a dysfunctional city comes down almost entirely to that pension piece.

at Michigan Capitol Confidential.

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