Alabama's bankrupt Jefferson County said it will appeal a judge's refusal to let the county reduce payments to bondholders, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas B. Bennett ruled in June that the county cannot cut the payments so that it can spend more on its aging sewage system or pay legal fees. Bondholders are owed more than $3 billion, debt that is backed by the payments made by business and residents in Alabama's biggest county. The county filed the biggest municipal bankruptcy in the U.S. after elected officials and creditors failed to implement a proposal to cut the sewer debt by about $1 billion.
