Detroit's post-bankruptcy finances have improved to the point where the city should be able to exit state oversight in early 2018, a Michigan official said yesterday, Reuters reported. Eric Scorsone, who oversees local Michigan governments as a senior deputy state treasurer, said Detroit was on track to end its third-straight fiscal year without a budget deficit. That is a main requirement for the Detroit Financial Review Commission, created as part of the city's bankruptcy exit plan, to go dormant. Michigan's largest city ended the biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy in December 2014 after shedding about $7 billion of its $18 billion of debt and obligations. If Detroit exits state oversight, the commission, which currently meets monthly, could come back to life if the city had a deficit or debt problem, Scorsone said. Detroit must still deal with an unfunded pension liability of at least $2 billion and pension payments set to resume in 2024, according to Scorsone.
