Detroit pension boards sue over emergency financial manager law

The Detroit Free Press reports:

The City of Detroit's two pension boards have challenged part of the state's new emergency financial manager law, calling it unconstitutional and a threat to the pension systems.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, claims the law gives the governor and state treasurer unbridled power to appoint emergency managers with "czar-like powers" that could usurp collective bargaining rights of city employees who negotiated pension plans. One pension system covers general employees, the other police and firefighters.

The 30-page complaint calls unconstitutional a portion of the new law that the suit claims allows EFMs to remove members of local pension boards "for any or no reason at all."

This is only the beginning. There's going to be a lot of unhappy voters who see the judiciary making public pension decisions because voters elected representatives who didn't think long term.