The city's retirees may have to take a hit all right, but those damnable constitutionalists are sure making it hard with their pressure on our legislature! We NEED to expand our medicaid and medicare!

"For fiscal year 2013, the General Fund is expected to make payments of approximately $230 million related to general obligation debt and POC obligations, $31 million for pension contributions (and will defer another $108 million in pension payments) and approximately $200 million for healthcare benefits, of which more than two thirds relates to retiree benefits."

The pensions are underfunded by roughly $600 million. Which is really the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to retiree obligations. The room temperature condition of Detroit could flood Michigan with financial troubles as the ice melts. Orr Notes:

"The City's credit ratings (S&P - B/B; Fitch - CCC/CC; and Moody's - Caa1/Caa2) have been deteriorating rapidly and are at historical lows, reflecting the distressed financial condition of the City."

The inability for the city to borrow any longer means the body is so rotted, there is nothing left to collateralize.

The 'first steps' for a fix mentioned in the report include such things as grants, the city ridding itself of an inefficient electric grid, and efficiencies it can find in public transportation. Other fixes and service cuts will likely be deemed off limits; parks and recreation, further reductions in policing and fire, and of course any perks that benefit the city council members.

He notes the teetering liability of the city's ownership of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, its underspending on critical infrastructure, (even with nearly $6 Billion in bonds issued) and inability to raise rates.  Operational issues there are being studied as if that might save one of the few true assets of the city. Labor agreements with 48 bargaining units are also being looked at as well, yet dealing with each of those will likely have to be carried into a chapter 9 (municipal) bankruptcy where the retirees pay (I mentioned this earlier) as much or more as the current employees.

The retirees should give a great big thank you to prop 1 opponents. Not.

In spite of our eternal optimism here we ask, "can the $15 billion pension fund be raided?"

As the bankruptcy debt protection is put in place, and interested parties make their claims, the city will see an attempt by the EFM to correct all manner of operational malfeasance.  Efficiencies sought, debt restructuring, reorganization, reinvestment, infrastructure updates, and encouragement of private investment.

And in the meantime, Detroiters will elect the same incompetent and oft corrupt officials who have served as parasites on a host that has been dead for at least a couple years.

Good luck with that.