Pension Board Overhaul Debate

[kraig]

An addendum to my post above.

In order to show Detroit's pensions losing 30% of their value, someone had to carve out an 18-month period which happens to coincide with the worst 18 months for the stock market. But Detroit reports on July 1 - June 30th basis. So there is actually no year when Detroit lost 30%. Here is the real comparison of Detroit to MERS [[rate of return) for just the last four fiscal year periods:

2008 MERS: -25%, Detroit: -5.8%
2007 MERS: 8.57%, Detroit: 18.1%
2006 MERS: 13.6%, Detroit: 11.8%
2005 MERS: 6.8%, Detroit: 9.8%

Any independent auditor would tell you Detroit's pension plans are doing far better than MERS.

There's no question that the Detroit Pensions are doing better than MERS. Disappointingly, Bing realizes that the only way to get the kind of benefits that Kwame and Co. got from the pensions is to move them to a body that's not being watched and scrutinized as much.

The MERS Board is far worse than the Detroit Pension Boards. But, due to the media not watching and reporting on them, they somehow appear to be a better alternative. Once this move backfires, the taxpayers of the entire state are going to have to supplement the retirees of the City of Detroit.

[Locke09]

There's no question that the Detroit Pensions are doing better than MERS. Disappointingly, Bing realizes that the only way to get the kind of benefits that Kwame and Co. got from the pensions is to move them to a body that's not being watched and scrutinized as much.

The MERS Board is far worse than the Detroit Pension Boards. But, due to the media not watching and reporting on them, they somehow appear to be a better alternative. Once this move backfires, the taxpayers of the entire state are going to have to supplement the retirees of the City of Detroit.

Go to the MERS site, and they are boasting that they participated in crafting the legislation that makes this possible. They also acknowledge that they will be better off if they acquire the City's pension funds.

Then read the proposed legislation. It is designed specifically to ensure that the mayor could request this action, and then that only the mayor could bring a lawsuit against this action. It allows the mayor to cause the action to be triggered by not making payments on time, then says only the mayor can object to the declaration that this is a distressed fund.

City employees and retirees need to get prepared to file a class-action lawsuit and challenge the legality of this in court if it passes. They also need to be prepared to remove their considerable funds from the annuity and invest it elsewhere.

[eno]

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