Financial "martial law" coming to Michigan

[Detroitnerd]

How quickly things change. Truly, if a democratic governor had proposed this, some of the very same people so comfy with EFM-land would have been shitting their pants with rage.

[R8RBOB]

How quickly things change. Truly, if a democratic governor had proposed this, some of the very same people so comfy with EFM-land would have been shitting their pants with rage.

As I stated, there are no Tea Baggers up in arms about Snyder enpowering the EFMs. These are Snyder's "czars" with more power than a mayor or a city manager or a school superintendent or administrator.

I was watching Ed Schultz last night and he had Bernero on and he said that the new law allows the governor to call an state of emergency for any city, village, town or county for any financial hiccup. Here's the thing...Snyder is on record to reducing shared revenue to the cities. Take away people leaving the state, jobs drying up and no new industries coming in, how in the hell can the cities and counties of this state avoid being declared a state of emergency and having one of Snyder's czar..err EFM come in and take over?

[bartock]

How quickly things change. Truly, if a democratic governor had proposed this, some of the very same people so comfy with EFM-land would have been shitting their pants with rage.

That's how BOTH parties work. One is always bellyaching about what the other is doing when the other has control, then doing the same thing they were bellyaching about when they have control. Wonderful two party system we have.

[rjk]

How quickly things change. Truly, if a democratic governor had proposed this, some of the very same people so comfy with EFM-land would have been shitting their pants with rage.

And if a republican governor was in charge of this state for the last 8 years democratic voters would have been shitting their pants in rage.
Your turn.

Pointing out that there's hypocrisy in politics is like pointing out that 1+1=2.

[bailey]

With all the bandwidth on this site dedicated to the proposition of forced consolidation of needlessly redundant municipalities and ridiculously overlapping services....one would think this EFM with sweeping power to force those things on communities that can no longer afford the redundancies would be welcomed here.

Of course, it's brought to you by republicans so even though it's exactly what many around here have been demanding for years....it MUST be an evil power grab. Funny how that works out.

[mwilbert]

States are sovereign entities who have joined together to form "a more perfect union". New states are permitted to "join" the union.

Sure, but the federal government is sovereign too. The two conflict. The question is what activities are or should be left to the states, and the parties are internally inconsistent on that.

In states, the county and city structure is determined by the state. The state has the power to divide counties [[and probably the power to consolidate counties. Cities and villages are "chartered" by the state and presumably those charters can be revoked and entities disbanded or consolidated with other entities by legislative fiat.

Yes, except that the state constitution may restrict this, as in Michigan.

Unlike some people, I don't think that the EFM legislation is illegitimate [[although maybe some particular aspects are unconstitutional--I imagine it will be litigated). I just think it is so broad that it is ill-advised. As R8RBOB says, it will pretty much allow the governor to appoint a financial manager anytime a state subdivision has a fiscal hiccup, which is probably not going to be very uncommon going forward. The bright side is that the threat of an EFM may focus the attention of those subdivisions and their stakeholders on getting their financial acts together in a way that hasn't been so apparent in places like Detroit.

[R8RBOB]

Driving on 96, I had a thought. I remember there was a thread http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...al-manager-too that mention how Dave Bing could be named as a EFM by Snyder if Detroit is declared in a state of emergency by the governor. Bing immediately stated that he would not want to be EFM of Detroit because he had too much on his plate.

Now, the bill has been passed and it will be law, let me throw out a scenario. Let's say you are the mayor of a city [[let's say Warren) or you're the executive of a county [[let's say Oakland) and the deficit is high and you want to cut cost and you get the bright idea that you can throw out union contracts and contract public services. Well, in your current role, you are incapable of enacting such a plan but if you can lobby to the state that your financial situation is in flux and you want the state to declare an state of emergency and........you want to be named the emergency financial manager for your city or county. As chief executive, there are checks and balances to keep them grounded but as chief executive/EFM, they would have carte blanche to do whatever you want. Something to think about.

[NorthEndere]

Even as skeptical as I am of this legislation, I think the idea that Dillon and the gov would simply switch a sitting mayor from mayor to EFM is far-fetched. They are going to bring in someone from the outside every time. The more likely scenario, here, is that mayors will threaten workers and city councils and such with worstcase scenarios as the only scenarios to get what they want. This probably isn't the best way to do business, but I suspect it'll work most of the time. Pretty much it'll be "you better vote for my buget or we're headed for a take-over."

[Novine]

"With all the bandwidth on this site dedicated to the proposition of forced consolidation of needlessly redundant municipalities and ridiculously overlapping services....one would think this EFM with sweeping power to force those things on communities that can no longer afford the redundancies would be welcomed here. "

I guess I missed the part where people were clamoring for that process to happen without any consent by the governed. That's the difference. If voters want to share services or consolidate governments, more power to them. That's not what Snyder and the Republicans in Lansing have passed. I don't usually buy into the overblown political rhetoric by calling these powers dictatorial is pretty spot on.