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EDITORIAL: Proposed ‘financial emergency’ bill an affront to democracy

By Editorial Board on March 14, 2011 1:45 am in Editorial / 9 comments

 

No emergency or governmental crisis is ever so desperate to justify betraying the fundamentals of democracy.

House Bill 4214, which has already passed through the Senate with a number of amendments, would allow state financial authorities and Gov. Rick Snyder to declare a “local government” such as a city or township to be in a “financial emergency.” Once declared in a financial emergency, they would appoint an “emergency manager” to revamp the municipality’s financial situation.

Such an emergency manager would be able to redistribute and restructure the government’s finances however they see fit. They would have the authority to terminate any contracts, end collective bargaining agreements with labor unions and even dissolve the municipal government, according to information on www.legislature.mi.gov.

The bill, which gained national attention when it was covered on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” is an affront to the democracy this state and country were founded on.

The emergency managers described in the bill can be government officials, private citizens or even corporations. Allowing private citizens or companies to fire elected officials or dissolve an entire government purely on their own authority is unacceptable.

If a city is truly in a financial emergency, drastic measures may be required. However, this bill is far too drastic and far too broad on every level.

It does not narrowly define a “financial emergency.” Although logic would suggest that such measures would only be used in the most dire situations where there are no other options, the bill does not say that.

There is nothing stopping Snyder from declaring financial emergencies in municipalities whose officials he has a problem with, appointing his friends from corporate circles as the emergency managers who would then run the municipality in the way most profitable to themselves.

In other words, this bill would enable everything that a democratically-elected government and the accountability it provides is meant to prevent.

Snyder was hired primarily on the platform of revamping Michigan’s economy in big, tangible ways. However he and the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Al Pscholka, R-Stevensville, need to do so within the boundaries of the democratic process.

Hopefully the legislators of Michigan have more respect for their fellow elected officials and the constituents they govern than to pass this bill.

Hopefully the citizens of Michigan — and the federal government, if necessary — will not allow such a broad, overreaching and morally bankrupt bill to go into effect.

 

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  • Michmediaperson

    I disagree. The Governor and the Stevensville rep are right on the money. This is a local and state issue. The Feds have nothing to do with this.

    National attention? Only a handful of the most liberals watch Rachel Maddow. Maddow’s ratings are in the tank vs. Fox in that time slot.

    With the economic conditions in Michigan communities, contracts may need to be terminated. Certainly, unions and collective bargaining agreements should be thrown out the window. The state is broke as is many local governments in this state.

    The other option is for Snyder and the state to stay away. Do you really want this? Don’t send a penny to local governments to bail them out and watch local police, fire and other services dissolve.

    Take your choice.

  • Ellekayejons

    I thought Michigan already had most of these financial emergency powers already in place since 1990. This bill just seems to shift the ultimate control of all monies to the state treasurer, governor and the emergency manager. Sounds a lot like Scott Walker’s ultimate power over “selling” the power plants of the WI state college campuses to the brothers Koch. The school boards and city councils would/could be dismissed, in this legislation. All contracts with the town, city, county would/could be declared null and void. I guess the schools could close while waiting for the districts to be combined into a new education entity.

    Who are these all-knowing, omnipotent Emergency Financial Managers? Evidently the first “class” has already gone thru their “training”. Kinda like TSA, maybe???

    Michigan is about to trump Wisconsin on scapegoating their citizens of the middle class. The working poor have already been addressed.

    Scary. Just downright scary.

  • Clarification Plz

    The Gov did not write this bill. It was approved by the House, not the Gov.

  • Anonymous

    what is your point? They are all guilty.

  • Anonymous

    Stop your nonsense.

    This is in no way related to bailouts, Rachel Maddow, republicans or your ego.

    This bill takes away the authority of elected officials and hands to some private manager/corporation.

    Gee, I wonder what kind of resource the nation’s most powerful conglomerates and parasitic organizations might covet in Michigan….

    This bill gives Perrier and Nestle to essentially purchase coast line cities and use the water however they wish.

    Privatization is never helpful.

  • Anonymous

    Dennis, you realize that taking power from the people and giving it to corporations is the fascism you rail against, right?

  • Rchausse

    I do not live in Michigan, I live in Oregon.
    So that being said I am very interested in what the effects of this ammendment to the existing Emergency Manager bill will be, I read that there is one little town in Michigan that is under management already and that not the manager will have more power. That the managers have take a public park and turned it into a private golf course? Is this true? How do you feel about this going on in your state?

  • George Gipp

    Please look up Public Act 72 of 1990, signed into law by democrat James Blanchard. Don’t rely on Rachel Maddow for your talking points. It has been used, on average, less than once a year for the past twenty years. This minor modification simply allows the EFM the same powers as a bankruptcy trustee, which would be the next step to solve a severe financial crisis. We, as the citizens of this state, elected Governor Snyder to fix the mess that Jennifer Mulhern and her union cronies tried to kick on down the road for future leaders to deal with. Her administration’s ineptitude led us to this point, and we all have to make sacrifices to bring our state back from the disaster it is facing.

  • Joe

    I don’t know what you do for a living but having 2 brothers that are/were state employees, i can tell you they are far from overpaid… How about You take whatever it is you do for a living, then start taking some of, wait, most of your perks away, and lets reduce your wage too while were at it, and then give all that to a large corporation and see how you like it. The unions and state workers did not break this state, and snyder wasn’t telling all he planned to do before he got elected or he wouldn’t have.