Casting A 'No' Vote, Coleman Young: Price Of Grand Bargain Was Too Much To Pay

LANSING (WWJ) - A Senate committee voted 5-0 to move all of these bills to the Senate floor and within two hours the Grand Bargain and oversight for 13 years in the city of Detroit was agreed upon.

A press conference was quickly convened by the governor's staff and Governor Snyder announced that he would sign the bills after standard overview and processing, which should be in the next day or two.

Senator Coleman Young is one of two lawmakers who voted against the package. Young says he voted no because making retirees pay for something they had no control of... isn't right.

"That's wrong. These are pensioners who worked hard all their life, I don't think they should be cut at all -- and have the pension fund balanced ... on the backs of hard-working people because of wall street corruption," said Young.

Young represents the 1st district which covers downtown Detroit...the Southwest side and some parts of the eastside.

"It was just too much to give up, giving up the right to vote for fourteen years - potentially longer. It was a price that was too high to pay, not to mention the fact that this was money that was being put into the district settlement administration authority, and there would be no one from Detroit that sits on this Authority," Young added.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan -- speaking with WWJ -- says the Senate vote is a sign of a new beginning for Detroit.

"Well, I'm really pleased for our retirees, I mean I was really concerned," said Duggan. "People have given their careers to the city and were going to end up with thirty percent or more cuts in their pension checks for the rest of their lives and I think with the action today ... while they won't be entirely whole - they are going to be a lot closer."

Duggan says he's been spending a huge amount of time studying the city's finances as he prepares to testify in the city's bankruptcy trial.

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