Washington, D.C. -Today, Congressman Joe Donnelly released the following statement:

“The legal action recently initiated by the state treasurer, if successful, would lead to the liquidation of Chrysler’s assets.  Simply put, if the state treasurer gets his way, more than 5,000 good-paying jobs in Kokomo and around the state will disappear.

The $5.6 million loss that would be sustained by the three state funds, while not insignificant, pales in comparison to the billions in annual economic activity that would be lost if Chrysler and its affiliated suppliers were to go out of business.  While there is no guarantee that this legal action would bring in even one additional dollar for the three funds, it is certain that it puts the jobs of more than 5,000 Hoosiers at risk.
 
Finally, no one should be led to believe that a potential loss of less than $6 million on over $7 billion in assets jeopardizes the pensions of police officers or teachers.  In fact, according to a statement released yesterday by the Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund, ‘Retirees and active teachers can rest assured that their pension benefit is still completely safe in the midst of these recent events.’  It’s more likely the case that many of those same hard-working police officers and teachers have family members or close friends whose livelihoods would disappear along with Chrysler’s liquidated assets.

The treasurer has the legal right to press this claim, but that doesn’t mean that he should.  Hoosiers need jobs and we should be working together to keep the ones we have.”

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