Detroit’s pension funds continued to push this week for an expedited appeal of the city’s bankruptcy eligibility and ability to slash pensions while negotiations between the city and its creditors intensified over a deal to shed billions in debt, the Detroit News reported today. The General Retirement System and Police and Fire Retirement System shot back on Wednesday at the city’s attempt to keep its favorable eligibility ruling out of the hands of judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ bench. “The city’s transparent effort to avoid any appellate review of the critically important eligibility question is legally unjustified and breathtakingly unfair to the tens of thousands of workers and retirees who devoted their lives to public service to Detroit and now depend on their accrued pension benefits, as well as employees and retirees across the state and nation who may be affected by this ruling,” the pension funds wrote in a brief filed on Wednesday with the Sixth Circuit. The pension funds’ appellate attorneys filed the brief after the city’s attorneys argued against an expedited appeal in a Monday filing with the Cincinnati-based appellate court. Detroit’s retirees want to be insulated from cuts to more than $18 billion in city debt, including an estimated $3.5 billion long-term liability in the two pension funds.
