Financial "martial law" coming to Michigan

[Danny]

Sorry, but his law is desperately needed. If your cities elected officials screw things up so bad that an outside agency needs to be called in to clean up the mess, Then they deserve to lose their power.

It's simple, Keep your city/school district solvent, or lose all control over it. There are now consequences, if you expect the state to come in and fix the mess your elected officials created.

The U.S. Constitution said that if your government is corrupt create a new government and construct a new constitution. However don't create a law that allows dictatorship. Americans HATE tyrants, dictators, kings, queens, Caesars, Pharoahs, Czars, Emperors and Kaisers ruling our FREE COUNTRY! Is The United States a democracy? or a Neo-Conservative/Origarchical Plutonomy?

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Where is your freedom? Where is your patriotism?

Neda have to fight for the freedom of the Iranian People, but end up being killed by the supreme leader's bullet. She was a true patriot and I miss her so.

[Detroitnerd]

If you think that EMFs, abolishing public employee unions, and denying people the right to home rule is going to solve the mess in Detroit, I've got a bridge in SW Detroit to sell to you.

I love how people conveniently forget that the state of Michigan took over DPS in the late 1990s. How did that work out for us, hmph?

That's an excellent point. But it will still sell with a lot of white voters in Michigan. I get the sense that when the institution an EFM takes over isn't majority black [[think Ecorse, Hamtramck), they have a fair track record of setting things right. And when the institution an EFM takes over is largely black [[think DPS, Highland Park), they may or may not set things right.

Anyway, let me be the first to say: We are all Highland Park residents now...

[Locke09]

There is an important lesson to be learned in all of this. Always vote and always vote wisely. In fact, you might need to run for office yourself, even if it means a pay cut.

Now you know why rich people run for office even when they don't need the job. What they need is the power.

It's like the line from a poem I learned in high school: "Unless you help to make the laws, they'll steal your house with trumped up clause."

[iheartthed]

I love how people conveniently forget that the state of Michigan took over DPS in the late 1990s. How did that work out for us, hmph?

Yeah, it's amusing how that little detail has been virtually unspoken. The NYT's article published yesterday did a better job of explaining why DPS has a bigger deficit today than it did at the start of Robert Bobb's tenure than anything I have seen in the Freep or News. It starts with the flood of charter schools that have siphoned off students and state per pupil funding from Detroit at a rate of 8,000 kids per year [[or about $60,000,000 per year).

Before I get accused of such I am not one of the people who thinks that DPS was doing a stellar job over the past several decades, but I also don't think the charter schools that Detroit students have been diverted to are doing any better. In fact, according to the NYT article, they are doing about the same with fewer of the handicaps that afflict DPS [[students in charters on average have fewer children eligible for free lunch programs, charters serve fewer disabled children, etc). So in the same vein, I don't understand the purpose of converting half of the remaining schools in DPS to charters unless the state is just trying to bankrupt the district.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/ed...schools&st=cse

[mwilbert]

Yeah, if the state can decide that the voters of municipalities don't need democratic representation, shouldn't the guv's first step be ... to step down? To appoint an EFM to run Michigan for him?

Maybe he should, but no one can make him--states are sovereign, cities aren't, However, you wouldn't like the results--presumably such a manager would do all the stuff you object to.

If you think that EMFs, abolishing public employee unions, and denying people the right to home rule is going to solve the mess in Detroit, I've got a bridge in SW Detroit to sell to you.

Did anyone say they thought that? I didn't see it.

I don't think that it would solve the mess, just balance the budget. You would still have a mess. It might not even balance the budget in the end, as it is certainly possible to get into a spiral of falling services and revenues, just as DPS has. Whether Detroit is at the point where a financial manager needs to be appointed, I'm not sure, but I do expect it eventually. It appears to me that the new legislation is so broad that the Governor could appoint one for Detroit any time he wanted.

[mwilbert]

I don't understand the purpose of converting half of the remaining schools in DPS to charters unless the state is just trying to bankrupt the district.

I think Bobb's idea is to make it easier for the DPS to reduce overhead. However, as I posted near the top of this, I don't see how the financing would work, and I see no reason to think it would have any particular educational benefit. But since I'm not in favor of the DPS existing, what you see as a drawback I see as a positive.

[Vox]

The next set of bills coming out of committee will be giving the cities and powers that rule now the same powers to change contracts and modify agreements as any EFM. So they will give cities the power to rectify their high cost contracts. Then if they dont, then this bill would kick in to do what they are unwilling to do, for them. The bills are now in committee, HB 4309 through 4312, deal with consoldation of services. Dont know if this will be good or bad for cities, but I know it\'s not much good for the workers.

[R8RBOB]

Yeah, it's amusing how that little detail has been virtually unspoken. The NYT's article published yesterday did a better job of explaining why DPS has a bigger deficit today than it did at the start of Robert Bobb's tenure than anything I have seen in the Freep or News. It starts with the flood of charter schools that have siphoned off students and state per pupil funding from Detroit at a rate of 8,000 kids per year [[or about $60,000,000 per year).

Before I get accused of such I am not one of the people who thinks that DPS was doing a stellar job over the past several decades, but I also don't think the charter schools that Detroit students have been diverted to are doing any better. In fact, according to the NYT article, they are doing about the same with fewer of the handicaps that afflict DPS [[students in charters on average have fewer children eligible for free lunch programs, charters serve fewer disabled children, etc). So in the same vein, I don't understand the purpose of converting half of the remaining schools in DPS to charters unless the state is just trying to bankrupt the district.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/ed...schools&st=cse

Thanks for the link. I read the NYTimes article and it was very interesting. This comment sums up Bobb's tenure in Detroit:

"Mr. Bobb has set off a vicious cycle undermining even good schools. The more schools he closes to save money, the more parents grow discouraged and pull their children out. The fewer the children, the less the state aid, so Mr. Bobb closes more schools."

Just that comment alone screams; "we had to destroy the village in order to save it."

As for future EFMs with the power to dissolve unions, fire elected officials and privatized services, well it's wrong.

[NorthEndere]

That's an excellent point. But it will still sell with a lot of white voters in Michigan. I get the sense that when the institution an EFM takes over isn't majority black [[think Ecorse, Hamtramck), they have a fair track record of setting things right. And when the institution an EFM takes over is largely black [[think DPS, Highland Park), they may or may not set things right.

Anyway, let me be the first to say: We are all Highland Park residents now...

Hamtramck isn't a success story, either. In fact, they are the closet to going back into a state-desginated financial emergency. They are probably at the very top of the list in terms of another take-over.

[Novine]

Here's Mr. Henderson's silly defense of the law.

http://www.freep.com/article/2011031...s|text|Opinion

What's up with this juvenile use of false claims that opponents claimed the passage of the law would lead to the end of the world and the fact that it didn't happen immediately proves them wrong. Really Mr. Henderson?

[Hermod]

The next set of bills coming out of committee will be giving the cities and powers that rule now the same powers to change contracts and modify agreements as any EFM. So they will give cities the power to rectify their high cost contracts. Then if they dont, then this bill would kick in to do what they are unwilling to do, for them. The bills are now in committee, HB 4309 through 4312, deal with consoldation of services. Dont know if this will be good or bad for cities, but I know it\'s not much good for the workers.

The problem in SE Michigan [[disregarding Detroit for a minute) is the myriad of little political units [[cities, towns, villages, townships, and school districts out there each with a set of politicians and a bunch of government workers. A solution [[as Detroit Nerd loves to point out) is consolidation. This bill will allow the state to do that. The rationale for consolidation is more efficiency, lower costs, and LESS WORKERS [[and politicians as well). We have too many bloated bureaucracies and to fix that, workers need to disappear [[do not pass Go, do not collect $200).

This bill will enable consolidation to smash the myriad of "rice bowls" out there.

Returning to Detroit, if i as appointed EFM for Detroit, I wouldn't try to remove the clowncil. I would just make it totally unprofitable to them to remain in office by eliminating their staffs except for a low paid clerk each and giving them an office budget enough to buy paper, envelopes, and stamps. I would then start through the higher levels of the civil service and eliminate 90% of the "grand poobahs". Tell the union that i won't abbrogate their contract and will leave functioning members of the rank and file alone if they play ball with me on my cuts and agree to some givebacks on medical care and retirement.

[Novine]

"The rationale for consolidation is more efficiency, lower costs, and LESS WORKERS [[and politicians as well). We have too many bloated bureaucracies and to fix that, workers need to disappear [[do not pass Go, do not collect $200)."

That's what people believe. However, the studies that have been done of consolidation efforts show that this doesn't always happen. Why? Because smaller units of government often have lower-paid workers, fewer benefits and provide fewer services. When those smaller units are consolidated into a larger entity, there may be fewer workers but they often end up with better pay and benefits.

[Danny]

Aldolf Snyder and his Republican Nazi's are at it again......I'll bet their are working on a law that allows him to remain in office indifinitely....you watch.

Well SEIG HEIL! folk Michigan has a new fuhrer! and his name is Snyder

[j to the jeremy]

live stream from inside the capitol
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mmflin...medium=7543586

[Jimaz]

That stream must be by Michael Moore. I think his email address starts with mmflint.

[j to the jeremy]

yeah i believe he's holding the camera, just walking around, not speaking much, [[seriously )

[lincoln8740]

Returning to Detroit, if i as appointed EFM for Detroit, I wouldn't try to remove the clowncil. I would just make it totally unprofitable to them to remain in office by eliminating their staffs except for a low paid clerk each and giving them an office budget enough to buy paper, envelopes, and stamps. I would then start through the higher levels of the civil service and eliminate 90% of the "grand poobahs". Tell the union that i won't abbrogate their contract and will leave functioning members of the rank and file alone if they play ball with me on my cuts and agree to some givebacks on medical care and retirement.

Come on Hermod--you wouldn't pay to see Joann Watson expression when she is stripped of all her power? In actuality, I think the bill does exactly what you recommend. You can't dissolve the council, but they have zero power over anything.

[NorthEndere]

If Granholm would have proposed something so extreme and far-reaching, the tea party would be screaming "Big-government socialism" bloody murder at the top of their lungs. I thought Republicans, especially, treated local-control as something almost religiously sacred. Meh. And, when the Dems tried to cap the pay of these emergency financial managers to not exceed the salary of the governor, the Republicans said no. lol As if this is about fiscal responsibility. Nasty hypocrites.

[detroitbob]

If Granholm would have proposed something so extreme and far-reaching, the tea party would be screaming "Big-government socialism" bloody murder at the top of their lungs.

As for the Detroit Public schools, when the Guv replaces the current financial manager with a new financial manager, {who} will fall under the guidelines of the new bill, wait until the Board acts up and they get disbanded...

[NorthEndere]

Out of curiosity, what does that have to do with anything I said? Are you saying that you'll hear nary a peep from them when this happens?

[Novine]

The obvious answer is that Republicans like local control when they can use it as a justification for blocking something they don't like. Otherwise, they have no qualms about trashing local control and home rule. The Tea Party is by and large the right-wing of the Republican party repackaged to appear as if they are populists instead of shills for the corporate interests that run the party. But look at the positions they take on most issues and you won't see any difference between what they believe and what benefits the corporate interests that back them.

[R8RBOB]

What happened to "small government" and "get government out of our lives?" The Tea Party spent two years telling America that Obama was Hitler, that he was overreaching and appointing czars to usurp power for himself and soon as the people elected Republicans to do what Democrats alleging weren't doing they decided that they would introduce things so radical that if Democrats had introduced some of this stuff, there would have been calls for revolution.

[mwilbert]

I don't really feel compelled to be fair to Republicans, but some of them do make a case that states can do things that the Federal government is constrained from doing by the Constitution. I generally disagree with that, but it isn't ridiculous. However, neither party has a consistent position on what level of government should do what. They simply make the case for whatever is most convenient for what they want to do anyway. Neither is principled when it comes to issues of governmental structure or process.

[ruxy17]

http://bestpracticeslocalfiscal.eventbrite.com/

The Turnaround Management Association [[a non-profit out of Chicago) and MSU are putting on a 2-day conference to discuss "best practices" for emergency takeover.

ugh. this whole things is scary.

[Hermod]

I don't really feel compelled to be fair to Republicans, but some of them do make a case that states can do things that the Federal government is constrained from doing by the Constitution. I generally disagree with that, but it isn't ridiculous.

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

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.