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EDITORIAL: Protests a sign the governor, legislature overstepped democratic boundaries with new law

By Editorial Board on March 18, 2011 12:01 am in Editorial / 22 comments

 

Gov. Rick Snyder has signed into law an egregious statute that undermines the rights of Michigan’s citizens — something rightfully demonstrated by thousands who protested the move this week.

On Wednesday, Snyder signed into law House Bill 4214, which will allow himself and state financial authorities to declare a city, township or other type of local government to be in a financial emergency.

Voters loudly protested Snyder’s decision Wednesday as about 5,000 people filled the halls and lobbies of the Michigan State Capitol. They also protested his budget proposal and the anti-union bill.

The protesters reportedly spoke against what they fear is an attack on the middle class and fundamental democratic rights.

The language of the law has, without question, stolen power from the people of Michigan to hold the people who govern them accountable, and yet it offers no concrete definitions for what a financial emergency means.

At a time when the newly-elected legislature and Snyder should be 100-percent transparent with their decisions, they succeeded in passing a law with vague language that could be misconstrued to serve selfish political ambition in the future.

If and when the governor and his bureaucrats decide what constitutes a financial emergency, the law mandates an emergency manager must be chosen to clean up shop in the allegedly stricken region.

The emergency manager — who ultimately would not be elected by the constituents of the district in which they would exercise their power — would be solely responsible for the financial condition of that municipality.

Intensifying the unconstitutional nature of the law is the right for the executive branch to choose government officials, private citizens or even corporations to be emergency managers. No barriers exist to prevent Snyder from appointing his confidants from business networks as emergency managers to manipulate a city’s finances for profit.

Should the emergency manager fail, it will be the citizens and tax dollars that will feel the loss, not the companies who were given free reign to manage governmental affairs with no responsibility to constituent concerns.

Clearly Snyder’s business background has tainted his view of how democracy in the U.S. works and who has the power to control the government — the people — not for-profit corporations.

Should Snyder continue to make legislative decisions without fully understanding their implications to the rights of Michigan citizens, he will surely face more vocal and prevalent opposition in the future.

 

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  • Anonymous

    Claiming they won big elections in the fall (which I don’t disagree with) is a bit of a fallacy, because I’m certain you were not in the same mind frame when Mr. Obama was elected with vast numbers 3 years ago (He won Indiana for god sakes, no democrat EVER wins Indiana). Just because you were elected into office does not entitle you to do whatever you please 4 months later.

  • Anonymous

    Come on CM Life. Apparently journalism classes are not being taught like they once were. Who cares about that whole fact thing anyway? Do your homework CM Life:

    This bill does not allow the Governor to force locally elected officials from office. Public Act 72 of 1990, is already in place, allowing for emergency managers (EM). When these EM’s have operated in the past, they have found that they need more controls to handle the challenges faced when turning a city around from financial destitution. And the state constitution already does allow for the removal or suspension of local officials.

    So far, the state has only used an EM on seven public entities out of thousands of Michigan schools and local governments: Hamtramck, Highland Park, Flint, the Village of Three Oaks, Ecorse, Pontiac and Benton Harbor. An EM was also appointed for the Detroit Public School District in 2009. The problem that EM’s faced is that they did not have enough control to make necessary financial fixes to help solve the problem. This bill is supposed to do as such.

    There are other statues that Michigan already has to keep local governments from failing financially: the Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act, the Emergency Municipal Loan Act, the Fiscal Stabilization Act, the Revised Municipal Finance Act, and the Home Rule Cities Act.

    Stop contributing to the mass mob-think that’s going on in this state and start being a responsible journalistic organization that seeks to inform, not incite.

  • Anna Dvorak

    Actually, they are not able to declare a city, township or local government to be in financial emergency.

    You NEED to read the bill(SB 153, available here http://legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billintroduced/Senate/htm/2011-SIB-0153.htm) before publishing articles like this and the one that ran front page on Wednesday. Wednesday’s ran with unqualified statements and information that was painfully obvious it was not researched.

    In layman’s terms:

    The bottom line is that there are several ways a… local government/school district can get into financial trouble should any of them be met then a written request is sent to the State Financial Authority and a preliminary hearing is set up. The hearing includes a team of one member from several State offices including one member from the Senate and House. If this team feels the local gov/school is indeed in trouble then a “get-well” plan is devised. The local has 60 days to write the plan with one 30 day extension. The plan is submitted to the team and if the team adopts it NO EFM is appointed. If they do not adopt it or the plan does not fix the problem then the Governor in writing requests from the local a plan – this has a 7 day response time. If the response is insufficient to comply with the rules of this bill then the governor can appoint an EFM HOWEVER on a 2/3 vote of the local body they can file suit in the Ingham County Court to appeal the ruling. If the judge feels the Governor acted capriciously or did not follow the data presented by the recovery team the judge can vacate the Governor’s ruling. All this to say it will be VERY difficult for a local body to get to this point unless they completely ignore the recovery team and do nothing to rectify their financial situation. Also the emergency manager serves at the sole discretion of the State Treasurer NOT the Governor. Also, the Emergency Manager cannot remove ANY elected official for public office only non-elected managers.

    While I personally do not like Governor Snyder, I am appalled at the tactic CM Life is using on this. Instead of doing proper research, the paper is printing unqualified statements and misinforming the readership.

    The process of using an EFM has happened 16 times since 1900, this is not a new phenomenon.

    CM Life is becoming about as accountable as I can physically throw the paper.

  • Anonymous

    I’ll wade in here and echo the last 3 comments prior – Snyder won with nearly 70% of the vote. That’s pretty recall-proof in my book. He’s doing exactly what we elected him to do – fix the parts of government that are broken. 95% of cities, villages and townships will never be effected by this law, and for the ones where those triggers are in place, they should WELCOME the oversight – not fight it. In light of recent events in Allen Park, and the on going challenges of the Detroit public schools and the cities of Pontiac, Ecorse, Flint, Highland Park and Royal Oak Township, those politicians obviously lack the skills or resources to get a handle on the problem.

    What our governor is doing, in a much more civilized manner than in Wisconsin, is ensuring that the 86.5% of citizens who DON’T belong to a union are equally treated and represented. I’m NOT anti-union, particularly for public safety. I’m anti-stupid. In the Wisconsin teachers retirement example, the teachers put in $1 towards their retirement and the state put in $57. That’s just criminal. In the private sector you’re fortunate to get dollar for dollar matching.

    So knock off the chicken little sky is falling woe is me. The only reason the unions are worried is because the public is beginning to pay attention to the sweetheart back room secret deals, where the public employees are supervised in their daily tasks by other public employees who also acted as ” management ” to negotiate the contract in the first place, and no one has any vested interest in any of it because the taxpayer ( that’s YOU ! ) is footing the bill. That’s a lot different than a private for profit company with an owner/board of directors/shareholders watching the bottom line.

    Let’s see where we are two years from now. I’m willing to bet the sky will not have fallen, and we’ll be a lot better off in the jobs department.

  • Shelby

    The problem is that everybody relied on Rachel Maddow for their background information on this bill. I’m not saying Maddow is necessarily right or wrong, but people should always use an objective news source for information. After that, people can watch commentary news if they want.

  • Shelby

    The problem is that everybody relied on Rachel Maddow for their background information on this bill. I’m not saying Maddow is necessarily right or wrong, but people should always use an objective news source for information. After that, people can watch commentary news if they want.

  • Anna Dvorak

    I meant to word that, “CM Life is becoming about as accountable as the distance I can physically throw the paper”

  • Anna Dvorak

    I meant to word that, “CM Life is becoming about as accountable as the distance I can physically throw the paper”

  • Joe

    Right. just like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and others did not use the ‘mandate” excuse when the liberals took complete control of the federal government and rammed all of their wish list upon us. usual liberal hypocrisy. Glad to see that you actually agree that Mr. Snyder was elected to clean up the mess of the last eight years of democrat policy failures. The people of the state overwhelmingly chose him over the union-backed career politician. Quit whining and wake up to the fact that your party lost big time and does not control the big chair.

  • Joe

    Is the editorial board trying out to be writers for the Rachel Maddow show?

  • Joe

    Is the editorial board trying out to be writers for the Rachel Maddow show?

  • Joe

    Is the editorial board trying out to be writers for the Rachel Maddow show?

  • Joe

    Wow gimp…what a short memory. Indiana voted for LBJ in 1964 and FDR in 1932 and 1936.

  • Joe

    It’s going to take a long time to fix Mrs. Mulhern’s mess. Unfortunately, as evidenced by President Bob King (UAW), the unions are refusing to see their extreme culpability in the financial mess. Of course, they destroyed GM and Chrysler and that turned out really well for the unions. Bankrupt the company and be the first in line to benefit when the new company emerges. Just think of the situation we would be in if union crony Bernero had actually managed to get elected. All new contracts and spending for union buddies, kick the can down the road for the rest of us to deal with in a couple of years.

  • Anonymous

    Ok, so five times in the last 100 years. Still not exactly a majority or close to one. And to counter your argument, my ballot was split ticket, with my governor’s vote going to Mr. Snyder. I hope he does clean this mess up, lord knows we need it. I just hope he’s learning that government isn’t business. Two completely different animals.

  • Joe

    So, what funding exactly is being removed from student’s pockets in HB4214? I can’t wait for your reply. Get a grip and stop listening to Rachel Maddow as your only source of information. Read the bill and then reply as to what funding is being removed from student pockets in HB4214.

  • Joe

    Right, but five times in the last 100 years proves that democrat candidates do win in Indiana, just not very often. Government and business are two different animals, but our government is very inefficient and ineffective. Applying sound business principles, rather than throwing money at the problem, will go a long way to fixing the mess Mrs. Mulhern exacerbated.

  • Gfre

    CM Life Editorial Board:

    PLEASE check the facts(as well as the U.S. & Michigan Constitution)before issuing opinions regarding government.

    If it is NOT in there, then maybe in the 2012 election, the voters will decide whether or not to add the issue to the Michigan Constitution.

    After all, DEMOCRACY & common sense DOES WORK when most people show up at the ballot box.

    GoChips81

  • Joe

    The protests are a sign that the unions are scared that they will actually have to bargain in good faith and utilize the facts of the situation, rather than just demand more and more benefits and perks for their members. This entitlement mentality has got to go, it is an archaic relic of long bygone times. Too bad the union bosses are stuck in the past, while the world moved forward.

  • Joe

    The protests are a sign that the unions are scared that they will actually have to bargain in good faith and utilize the facts of the situation, rather than just demand more and more benefits and perks for their members. This entitlement mentality has got to go, it is an archaic relic of long bygone times. Too bad the union bosses are stuck in the past, while the world moved forward.

  • Joe

    CM Life Editorial Board:
    While you are fact checking….please read Public Act 72 of 1990. Same information as HB4214, but without the hysteria and hype from the unions. Why? Just because it was signed into law by democrat party Governor Jim Blanchard? He, John Engler, and Jennifer Mulhern have all had the opportunity to use this option of last resort.

  • Joe

    CM Life Editorial Board:
    While you are fact checking….please read Public Act 72 of 1990. Same information as HB4214, but without the hysteria and hype from the unions. Why? Just because it was signed into law by democrat party Governor Jim Blanchard? He, John Engler, and Jennifer Mulhern have all had the opportunity to use this option of last resort.