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Some Detroit retirees are asking the City to use American Rescue Plan Act funds to send them a check

A group of Detroit retirees has created a petition on change.org that asks the city to pay them a one-time check of 14-hundred dollars. The retirees say the city could pay them using some of the $826-million-dollars it received from the American Rescue Plan Act.

William M. Davis is the president of the Detroit Active and Retired Employee Association. He says, as part of Detroit’s bankruptcy negations, general retirees like himself suffered pension cuts, lost future cost-of-living adjustments and gave up health care coverage.

“We have some retirees who work for 40 years and they're just getting by. You should not have to choose between paying your rent and paying for your medical care that's helping to keep you alive.”

The City of Detroit says the retirees agreed to a settlement that prohibits it from increasing or decreasing pension payments. The City says if it were to pay these checks it would be in violation of a court order.

Laura Herberg is a reporter for 101.9 WDET, telling stories about people inhabiting the Detroit region and the issues that affect us here. She won a Regional Murrow Award for best Hard News story (Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio) in 2020 and she was named the Michigan Associated Press Best Reporter for radio broadcasting in 2020, 2018 and 2017. In 2012, she was awarded a SoundCloud Fellowship for her project, “Listen to Detroit.” She also is the creator of Complete Me, a podcast with only three episodes about how she has trouble completing tasks.