Part of Detroit's Bankruptcy Blueprint Revealed

The City of Detroit is proposing to pay the city’s pension funds slightly more than bankers, bondholders and other creditors in its plan to reduce its $18 billion in debt and long-term liabilities, the Free Press has learned.

The city’s proposed plan of adjustment in its historic municipal bankruptcy case, obtained Thursday by the Free Press, also calls for leasing the water department for 40 years and setting up a health care trust called Detroit VEBA to manage retiree insurance benefits.

But the plan, created by emergency manager Kevyn Orr, still lacks many details, including how much individual retirees’ pensions would be cut. The 99-page plan, delivered to creditors on Wednesday, also does not offer specifics about changes to individual health care plans for current workers, an issue many city employees and retirees are fretting over.