Why can't Detroit [[and other government units) and corporations

[Locke09]

I think trying to shove a consent agreement and emergency management down Detroit's throats was a little like trying to give a kid castor oil, no?

Curious about your last statement -- can you back that up? Sounds a lot like a talking point of the local pension boards defending their actions. But I'm open to hearing.

First, the state didn't need a consent decree or emergency manager to make the city pay it's contribution. Just like they diverted revenue sharing when the city wasn't doing other things they wanted the city to do, they could have done so for that as well.

As for state pensions, I have never been a talking points person. Even as a child I questioned everything and I always want to see data [[preferably raw data).

MERS - for Michigan municipalities - posts their financial reports. ORS - for state employees - posts theirs as well. Let's just look at the state's numbers although I have reviewed both in the past:

State assumes 8% investment return - CofD assumes 7.9%

State uses 5 year smoothing for losses - CofD was using 5 years but switched to 7 last year at the request of the administration so they could justify putting in less money. The longer the smoothing, the better your finances look. Btw, MERS uses 10 years [[Lol) and they also use 8% investment return.

State is 65.5% funded using the same assumptions Detroit uses to say they are 77% - 96%. So if Detroit's assumptions are wrong and they are worse off than they thought, what does that say about the state?

The State uses Gabriel Roeder & Smith as actuaries just like Detroit does. So again - if you can't trust GRS, then the state might only be about 50% funded.

i believe the state might use a different mortuary table than Detroit, I'll have to recheck.

But anyway, information is readily available for analysis, for those who like doing analysis.