Detroit Not Alone Under Mountain Of Long-Term Debt
WASHINGTON Detroit may be alone among the nations biggest cities in terms of filing for bankruptcy, but it is far from the only city being crushed by a roiling mountain of long-term debt.
At the heart of Detroits problem is a growing unfunded debt on benefits owed to current and future retirees some $3.5 billion, according to its emergency manager, Kevyn Orr which mirrors a circumstance being seen across the U.S.
From Baltimore to Los Angeles, and many points in between, municipalities are increasingly confronted with how to pay for these massive promises. The Pew Center for the States, in Washington, estimated states public pension plans across the U.S. were underfunded by a whopping $1.4 trillion in 2010.
For years, watchdog groups and public-sector analysts have warned of the threat posed by unfunded liabilities. Much like the legacy pension costs that weighed on Detroits automakers before the Chrysler and General Motors restructurings of 2009, the worry is that revenues cant keep up with growing debt and that rosy predictions for market returns downplay the actual financial risk.
As examples of the results: Chicago recently saw its credit rating downgraded because of a $19-billion unfunded pension liability that the ratings service Moodys puts closer to $36 billion. And Los Angeles could be facing a liability of more than $30 billion, by some estimates.
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