Panel says Detroit needs help to avert bankruptcy

A budget committee warns that the nation's sixth-largest city could go broke in three months without some quick action to improve its finances. But reaction from some city employees to the panel's recommendations, left doubt that default and checkless paydays can be averted.

The blue-ribbon committee, named by Mayor Coleman A. Young to assess the city's financial status, did not blame mismanagement but external factors like the auto industry slump. The key to the committee's plan for fiscal survival was a 1 percent increase on income taxes, a freeze on wages, salaries, and benefits for s ome city employees, and wage rollbacks for others.