# Detroit Bankruptcy The **Detroit bankruptcy** — filed July 18, 2013 by the city's state-appointed [[Emergency Manager]], Kevyn Orr, with Governor [[Rick Snyder]]'s authorization, and exited December 10, 2014 — was the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history, with some $18 billion in claimed liabilities. No elected official of Detroit filed it. The "Grand Bargain" that ended it — $816 million from foundations, the state and the Detroit Institute of Arts' donors to shield the museum's collection from creditors and soften pension cuts — is the model the austerity right cites for how a distressed city should be run, and the model its critics cite for how a Black-majority city's democracy was suspended to do it. > [!note] Stub > Created to resolve a link from the Emergency Manager page. Expand: PA 436's role, Judge Rhodes's rulings on the pension clause, the Grand Bargain's terms, and the post-bankruptcy record. ## See Also - [[Emergency Manager]] · [[Rick Snyder]] · [[Flint Water Crisis]] · [[Mackinac Center for Public Policy]]