Ambac Assurance Corp. has turned to Harrison J. Goldin, New York City’s comptroller during its mid-1970s fiscal crisis, for advice on Detroit and its plan to partially repay some debt backed by municipal taxpayers there, Bloomberg News reported today. Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr halted payments on $2 billion in unsecured debt, including some tax-backed general-obligation bonds, in June. Ambac, a unit of New York-based Ambac Financial Group Inc. (AMBC) that insures $170.3 million in the securities, said that the move imperils the city’s recovery. Orr, appointed this year by Republican Governor Rick Snyder to oversee the fiscal recovery of Michigan’s largest city, has proposed skipping some debt payments, including those owed on $530 million in unsecured unlimited-tax and limited-tax general-obligation bonds. Orr is grappling with $17 billion in Detroit liabilities as he tries to avoid entering what would be a record municipal bankruptcy.
