Tag: Michigan

Detroit police, fire pensioners push back on bankruptcy ruling to extend payments

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2023/07/11/detroit-police-fire-pensioners-push-back-on-ruling-to-extend-payments/70401452007/

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Excerpt:

The Police and Fire Retirement System of Detroit filed on Monday a motion for reconsideration, pushing back on a federal bankruptcy judge’s ruling in favor of the Duggan administration’s plan to extend the city’s pension payment obligations over 30 years rather than 20 years.

The city’s police and fire retirees are continuing litigation that has been ongoing since August when the city administration initially filed suit against the pension system to enforce a 30-year pay-out schedule. On June 26, Judge Thomas Tucker ruled in the city’s favor, stating that a 30-year amortization period is “indeed part of the (bankruptcy) Plan of Adjustment and that the Police Fire Retirement System cannot change it.”

The new motion seeks clarification of the court’s possible imposition of a 6.75% rate of return that was specifically set to expire after 10 years under the Plan of Adjustment, the bankruptcy exit plan. After June 30, the pension fund’s rate of return and its amortization funding policy are within the purview of the Police and Fire Retirement System’s Board of Trustees and Investment Committee, according to the pensioners’ filing.

At the 30-year determined rate, the city will complete its debt obligations in 2054. Police and fire retirees want their pension fund to be made whole sooner.

Author(s): Sarah Rahal

Publication Date: 11 July 2023

Publication Site: The Detroit News

Retirees fled state to avoid taxing of pension

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://news.yahoo.com/retirees-fled-state-avoid-taxing-090009834.html

Excerpt:

The tax on pensions moved many retirees to flee the state for no-tax states like Florida. I attended one of Dale Zorn’s town halls shortly after his 2011 vote. I told him the huge cost to my pension that I didn’t expect after I retired. He told me they, the Republican Party, will revisit this at a later date. IT NEVER HAPPENED! Since 2011, the Republican Party controlled both houses and could easily have voted to repeal this tax they passed in 2011. It incredulous how they have spun this issue.

Now Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is pushing to repeal this tax this year in her State of the State speech. She knows with inflation pressures how seniors are being affected. She knows this will free up disposable income to be spent in local communities across the state. She knows its good for small business.

Author(s): Paul Wohlfarth

Publication Date: 30 Jan 2021

Publication Site: Yahoo News

Report: Number of Michigan Nursing Home Deaths 42 Percent Larger Than Whitmer Disclosed

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://freebeacon.com/democrats/report-number-of-michigan-nursing-home-deaths-42-percent-larger-than-whitmer-disclosed/

Excerpt:

The number of COVID-19 deaths in Michigan nursing homes is 42 percent larger than Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration disclosed, according to a state auditor general’s report reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The report, which Auditor General Doug Ringler is set to release in full next week, shows 8,061 COVID-19 deaths in the state’s long-term care facilities from Jan. 1, 2020, to July 2, 2021. That number is 42 percent larger than the 5,675 deaths Whitmer’s health department reported.

Author(s): Collin Anderson

Publication Date: 13 Jan 2022

Publication Site: Washington Free Beacon

Flu rips through University of Michigan campus, bringing CDC to Ann Arbor

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2021/11/15/flu-rips-through-university-michigan-campus-brings-cdc-campus/8622063002/

Excerpt:

Influenza is sweeping the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus, with 528 cases diagnosed at the University Health Service since Oct. 6.  

The outbreak is so sudden and large — 313 cases were identified the week of Nov. 8 alone and 37% of flu tests that week were positive — that it’s drawn the attention of federal health leaders.

……

Among those who’ve contracted flu at U-M this fall, 77% didn’t get a flu vaccine. The cases were identified as influenza A (H3N2), said Lindsey Mortenson, UHS medical director and acting executive director.

“While we often start to see some flu activity now, the size of this outbreak is unusual,” said Juan Luis Marquez, medical director at the Washtenaw County Health Department. “We’re grateful for the additional support of the CDC and our ongoing partnership with the university as we look more closely at the situation.”

Author(s): Kristen Jordan Shamus

Publication Date: 15 Nov 2021

Publication Site: Detroit Free Press

Unprecedented federal borrowing floods state budgets

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/556660-unprecedented-federal-borrowing-floods-state-budgets

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Once per calendar quarter, the state of Michigan conducts a Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference that provides updates on both the national and state economies and the state’s fiscal outlook. The May conference each year is especially significant because it sets the official revenue targets for the next fiscal year’s state budget. 

The May meeting packet contained a broad range of data points, but a few jumped out.

….

Another chart broke down the components of personal income. Over the previous four quarters, personal income was nearly $3,000 higher than pre-pandemic forecasts had expected. However, employee compensation actually declined by about half that amount. The entire increase is the result of the 53 percent increase in federal transfer payments that have floated U.S. households over the past year.

Author(s): DAVID GUENTHNER

Publication Date: 5 June 2021

Publication Site: The Hill

Pension crisis has local impact

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: http://www.keweenawreport.com/featured/pension-crisis-has-local-impact/

Excerpt:

Keweenaw Report reached out to City of Houghton manager Eric Waara to see if there was a similar arrangement for DPW staff there. He said everyone’s plan was converted to MERS over a decade ago. Waara says Houghton’s fund is well over 80 percent covered, which is considered excellent. That means current assets can cover nearly all expected future liabilities related to retirement.

Publication Date: 6 May 2021

Publication Site: Keweenaw Report

The COVID-19 Disaster That Did Not Happen in Texas

Mary Pat Campbell
The COVID-19 Disaster That Did Not Happen in Texas

Excerpt:

Most businesses in Texas had been allowed to operate at 75 percent of capacity since mid-October, when Abbott also allowed bars to reopen. It was implausible that removing the cap would have much of an impact on virus transmission, even in businesses that were frequently hitting the 75 percent limit.

While Abbott said Texans would no longer be legally required to cover their faces in public, he urged them to keep doing so, and many businesses continued to require masks. At the stores I visit in Dallas, there has been no noticeable change in policy or in customer compliance.

Conversely, face mask mandates and occupancy limits did not prevent COVID-19 surges in states such as Michigan, where the seven-day average of newly confirmed infections has risen more than fivefold since March 1; Maine, which has seen a nearly threefold increase; and Minnesota, where that number has more than doubled. Cases also rose during that period, although less dramatically, in other states with relatively strict COVID-19 rules, including Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Florida, a state often criticized as lax, also has seen a significant increase in daily new cases: 34 percent since mid-March. But Florida, despite its relatively old population, still has a per capita COVID-19 death rate only a bit higher than California’s, even though the latter state’s restrictions have been much more sweeping and prolonged.

Author(s): Jacob Sullum

Publication Date: 21 April 2021

Publication Site: Reason

Detroit’s Black Wealth Tax

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.city-journal.org/detroit-racial-wealth-gap-property-tax-policy

Excerpt:

But this is Detroit, which has the highest effective property tax rate of any major city in America, at 3.58 percent of market value. If the tax man assesses your house at its full renovation cost, this would add $537 to your monthly mortgage bill, bringing it to $1,295.

That hefty charge might not look too bad if the quality of local government services is top shelf. As Charles Tiebout observed in his classic 1956 article on local public finance, people “vote with their feet” and shop for their preferred combination of services and prices among various localities. Some happily buy at the public services equivalent of Neiman Marcus, others at Walmart.

From public safety to education to infrastructure, however, Detroit is no Neiman Marcus. To be charitable, let’s suppose the city’s services are on par with those of other Michigan cities, where the average property tax rate is 1.54 percent. Elsewhere, then, a comparable $180,000 investment comes with a monthly mortgage bill of just $989, or $306 a month less than in Detroit.

Author(s): Stephen J. K. Walters

Publication Date: 9 April 2021

Publication Site: City Journal

What We Hope Is The Final COVID Surge

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://polimath.substack.com/p/what-we-hope-is-the-final-covid-surge

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Excerpt:

My current plan is to stop following COVID numbers after this coming May. But a lot of that plan rested on this assumption that, as we get really high up there with vaccine numbers, the COVID data would become less and less interesting as it just kind of fizzles out.

Michigan is currently putting that assumption to the test.

*takes deep breath*

The numbers out of Michigan have all the markings of a classic COVID surge. I could maybe make the case that it’s not as steep as we would have expected and maybe it will plateau in the next week or two, but I’ve been expecting that the rate of vaccinations would temper this kind of a surge.

Author(s): PoliMath

Publication Date: 6 April 2021

Publication Site: Marginally Compelling at Substack

Detroit Mayor Is Wrong To Turn Down J&J COVID-19 Vaccines

Mary Pat Campbell
Detroit Mayor Is Wrong To Turn Down J&J COVID-19 Vaccines

Excerpt:

The Detroit Free Press reports that the mayor declined to accept a shipment of 6,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine. Why? At a press conference on Tuesday, the mayor asserted, “Johnson & Johnson is a very good vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer are the best. And I am going to do everything I can to make sure the residents of the city of Detroit get the best.”

What does the mayor mean by “best”? Duggan stated, “The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are 95% effective if you get two shots. Johnson & Johnson is one shot, which is nicer, but it’s about 67% effective.”

Actually, in the United States arm of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) clinical trial, the vaccine’s ability to prevent moderate to severe infection was 72 percent and it is 85 percent effective at preventing severe disease.In addition, the J&J vaccine has been shown to be effective against the new, more contagious COVID-19 variants that are now spreading across the country. And it is likely that many citizens would prefer the convenience of getting a one-and-done J&J shot as opposed to waiting nearly a month to get a second Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech shot.

Author(s): Ronald Bailey

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: Reason

Guilty of bribery and extortion, ex-public employees still collect public pensions

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wxyz.com/news/local-news/investigations/after-admitting-to-bribery-and-extortion-ex-public-employees-still-collect-public-pensions

Excerpt:

In 2017, a law was passed that attempted to make forfeiture of a crooked public employee’s pension mandatory, or at least easier to pursue. But a 7 Action News investigation reveals it has seldom been used, and Michigan’s Attorney General was not even familiar with it.

Former Detroit Police officers James Robertson, Jamil Martin and Anthony Careathers were charged by prosecutors when it was revealed that each was extorting collision shop owners on the job.

Author(s): Ross Jones

Publication Date: 4 March 2021

Publication Site: WXYZ

Group files records requests for Michigan school, state employee pension information

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2021/03/02/two-transparency-groups-seek-salary-pension-information-michigan-workers/6834356002/

Excerpt:

Sain and other Michigan public school retirees who are part of the state pension system were notified this week their names and pension information were released through the Freedom of Information Act request, Department of Technology, Management and Budget spokesperson Caleb Buhs said in an email. 

Steven Schupbach, who works for the Illinois nonprofit American Transparency, which tracks government spending, asked for retired public school workers’ first and last names, middle initials, residential zip codes, last employer zip code and monthly payment amount. 

Author(s): Carol Thompson

Publication Date: 1 March 2021

Publication Site: Lansing State Journal