Indiana treasurer stands by fight about Chrysler plan

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s failed quest to stop Chrysler’s bankruptcy proceedings will cost state taxpayers $2 million in legal fees, but he has no regrets about what some saw as a foolishly impractical effort.

That sum is on top of the $5.6 million a road construction fund and pension funds for retired teachers and state troopers stand to lose as Chrysler arises as a new company with most of its debt erased. Auto workers, meanwhile, said if Mourdock had succeeded, he would have cost Indiana even more and jeopardized thousands of jobs in a state already wracked by the auto industry’s collapse.

The Republican treasurer said he was doing his job in trying to protect the funds.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same,” Mourdock – who owns a Chrysler-made Dodge Ram pickup truck – said Wednesday.

Italian automaker Fiat completed its purchase of the bulk of Chrysler’s assets on Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on Mourdock’s objections to the sale on behalf of the funds. The three funds, which held less than 1 percent of Chrysler’s $6.9 billion in secured debt, will lose less than 1 percent of their value.

Mourdock said the bankruptcy deal unfairly favored Chrysler’s unsecured stakeholders over secured debtholders like the state, going against years of bankruptcy law.

Other debtholders balked at the deal too, but eventually dropped efforts to stop the proceedings. President Obama singled out a handful of debtholders as seeking an “unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout” and some received death threats.

Mourdock, a marathon runner who describes himself as a competitive person, stuck with it.

“I could very easily just kind of duck under the covers and do what everybody else was doing and go tell our pensioners, ‘Hey guys, sorry you just lost some money,’” Mourdock said. “But I took an oath of office and meant to honor it.”

Neither the state teachers union nor police officers’ groups have commented publicly about the issue, though Mourdock says he heard from retired teachers and state police who were glad he was fighting for their money.