Detroit city workers and supporters protest outside the federal courthouse in Detroit while awaiting the bankruptcy decision today.By ED WHITE
Associated Press
DETROIT – Detroit is eligible to shed billions in debt in the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history, a judge said today in a long-awaited decision that now shifts the case toward how the city will accomplish that task.
Judge Steven Rhodes turned down objections from unions, pension funds and retirees, which, like other creditors, could lose under any plan to solve $18 billion in long-term liabilities.
But that plan isn’t on the judge’s desk yet. The issue for Rhodes, who presided over a nine-day trial, was whether Detroit met specific conditions under federal law to stay in bankruptcy court and turn its finances around after years of mismanagement, chronic population loss and collapse of the middle class.