EFM: Snyder to name Detroit emergency financial manager

[Shollin]

You're assuming that Pontiac would be in better shape without an EFM. You're assuming that DPS would be in better shape without an EFM.

The goddamn plane has crashed into the mountain, and what we need is someone to sift through the wreckage and salvage what's left. At the end of the day, though...there was still a plane crash.

Well gee whiz, what did cities do before this revolutionary EFM law was passed? You think a bankruptcy judge can't sift through the financial carnage? Remember, this manager was appointed to run the finances but in reality it's a dictator with complete control of things other than finances.

[michimoby]

Well gee whiz, what did cities do before this revolutionary EFM law was passed? You think a bankruptcy judge can't sift through the financial carnage? Remember, this manager was appointed to run the finances but in reality it's a dictator with complete control of things other than finances.

To answer your question: I don't know. I don't have any examples of municipalities in Michigan that declared bankruptcy prior to the Act being passed. Someone on this board may.

Here's a core difference that I see, at the onset, between a bankruptcy judge and EFM: a judge has no incentive for reform; he's appointed by an appeals court with little to no attachment to the challenges of reform.

An EFM is going to be put in place by a governor that sees a veritable tire fire burning out of control in his state's largest city. It raises the stakes, and I don't doubt the EFM is going to have some degree of personal, professional, and emotional investment in enacting reform.

[hamtown mike]

Would a bankruptcy cancel the debt owed on past bond issuances?

[RapBrown]

I don't doubt the EFM is going to have some degree of personal, professional, and emotional investment in enacting reform.

And evidence of this would be where?

[brizee]

Good luck Detroit and Michigan, you're going to need and I sure won't be joining you on this shitty little journey.

I hope all the ideologues calling for this austerity nonsense will spit as much venom at this "savior" as you have at the citizens of Detroit and their elected officials. Even though I know you won't.

I'm really interested in how the city clerk/voting process is going to be handled both this year and in 2014.

Shenanigans in the supreme court.
Shenanigans in the state legislature.
TBD at the local level.

The law was soundly repealed, so it's just rewritten with an unrepealable poison pill two weeks later.

Fuck you and your motherfucking mama.

[michimoby]

And evidence of this would be where?

It's a hypothesis, Rap. It's not written in stone because we don't know who it's going to be. But I trust a governor with decades of business experience and roots in Michigan, and his appointee more than an appeals court.

[Wesley Mouch]

And evidence of this would be where?

An example of "the evidence for personal, professional, and emotional involvement would be"...

When Lou Schimmel [[The German sent in to rule the Poles) left Hamtramck, he said that he really HOPED that the City would build on his reforms and not return to their old ways, and destory what he'd built. I call that INVESTMENT. He cared.

Mr. Brown, you destroy any efforts at reform, but have set no path forward. Yes, humans are imperfect. But you'll find live easier if you accept that disagreement does not equate to disrespect.

[Shollin]

To answer your question: I don't know. I don't have any examples of municipalities in Michigan that declared bankruptcy prior to the Act being passed. Someone on this board may.

Here's a core difference that I see, at the onset, between a bankruptcy judge and EFM: a judge has no incentive for reform; he's appointed by an appeals court with little to no attachment to the challenges of reform.

An EFM is going to be put in place by a governor that sees a veritable tire fire burning out of control in his state's largest city. It raises the stakes, and I don't doubt the EFM is going to have some degree of personal, professional, and emotional investment in enacting reform.

This is the whole problem with the law. The financial manager is suppose to manage the finances. He was appointed after a review of the city's finances. Why should he have wide sweeping controls of the city? As far as I know, the financial manager cannot restructure the city's debt like a bankruptcy judge and restructuring the finances is the point of a financial manager. Basically, the control finances by being a dictator and cutting any service they want without approval from elected officials or citizens.

[corktownyuppie]

As far as I know, the financial manager cannot restructure the city's debt like a bankruptcy judge and restructuring the finances is the point of a financial manager.

You are right, but incomplete. The financial manager can't restructure the city's debt like a bankruptcy judge. But what the financial manager can do is use the threat of bankruptcy to quickly negotitate a restructuring of the debt without incurring the time and expense of bankruptcy.

The purpose of an EFM is to come to the same outcome that a bankruptcy judge would. Leveraging the threat of bankruptcy will allow that to happen much, much more quickly.

[corktownyuppie]

Well gee whiz, what did cities do before this revolutionary EFM law was passed? You think a bankruptcy judge can't sift through the financial carnage? Remember, this manager was appointed to run the finances but in reality it's a dictator with complete control of things other than finances.

A bankruptcy judge can do it. But it will cost 4x as much and could take 10x as long. Either way we're getting a dictator. We can get the cheap one or the expensive one. I'll take the cheap one.