Reverse Robin Hood: Screw workers, help billionaires
As U.S. states and cities grapple with budget and pension shortfalls, many are slashing public employee pension benefits and public services while diverting that money into lucrative subsidies for professional sports teams. Detroit on Monday made itself the most prominent example of this trend.
Officials in the financially devastated city announced that current and future municipal retirees had blessed a plan that will slash their pension benefits. On the same day, the billionaire owners of the Detroit Red Wings, the Ilitch family, unveiled details of an already approved taxpayer-financed stadium for the professional hockey team. Many retirees now face a 4.5 percent cut in their previously negotiated cost-of-living adjustments, which is part of a larger plan to cut $7 billion of the city’s debt. At the same time, the public is on the hook for $283 million toward the new stadium after giving the Ilitches key parcels of land for $1.