Detroit Is Officially Bankrupt

It is official: Detroit is bankrupt. Suggested Reading Tupac Associate Young Noble’s Death Illuminates Alarming Fact About Suicide Rates Among Black Men Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Recent Dissent Proves She’s Unafraid to Challenge Her Colleaguesโ€”Unlike Clarence Thomas After Three Open-Heart Surgeries, This Black Father Discovered an Unusual Cure Video will return here when scrolled back…

It is official: Detroit is bankrupt.

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On Tuesday, a federal judge gave Detroit the OK to proceed with the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, the New York Times reports. By allowing the city to qualify for bankruptcy, Detroit can dump billions in debt. Judge Steve W. Rhodes said that city met all of the qualifications, including failing to pay debts and being unable to provide a minimum level of basic services to its 680,000 residents, the New York Times reports.

"This once proud and prosperous city canโ€™t pay its debts," the judge said. "Itโ€™s insolvent. Itโ€™s eligible for bankruptcy. But it also has an opportunity for a fresh start."

Appeals were expected to be filed quickly, as the ruling also allowed for public pensions to be reduced during the reorganization despite a provision in Michiganโ€™s constitution.

A spokesman for the Detroit fire and police department retirement system told the New York Times that lawyers were working on filing an appeal for the some 8,500 retirees, by the end of the week.

Detroit, once the fourth largest city in the United States, experienced a financial collapse once the auto industry, the backbone of Detroit's economy, began to crumble. According to the New York Times, the city will be allowed to search for ways to satisfy some of its financial obligations and must work to restore essential services to residents under court supervision.

Read more at the New York Times.

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