Michigan Set To Enact Sweeping 'Financial Martial Law' Bill

As readers know, I was favorably inclined toward the overall positive tenor of the successful gubernatorial campaign run by Rick Snyder (R-Mich.) and his subsequent efforts to move past partisan political rivalries. I'd hoped that it portended some coming creative thinking and innovation in the realm of state management.

As it turns out, I was terrifically wrong, and Snyder's just lost me completely with his apparent desire to enact a law that would impose "financial martial law" upon struggling communities in the form of "financial managers" that would have the power to abrogate contracts at will and supersede the democratic process. There's been a lot of recent media attention focused on a similar disregard for the public will in Wisconsin, but what's happening in Michigan really makes Scott Walker look like an amateur.

The Michigan Messenger has more:

According to the law, which has already been approved in the House, the governor will be able to declare "financial emergency" in towns or school districts and appoint someone to fire local elected officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, and eliminate services.

Under the law whole cities or school districts could be eliminated without any public participation or oversight, and amendments designed to provide minimal safeguards and public involvement were voted down.

That's right! In case you were wondering, the law has been specifically engineered to obliterate any minimal form of public accountability:

An amendment to require Emergency Managers to hold monthly public meetings to let people know how they are governing was rejected by Senate Republicans, along with proposals to cap Emergency Manager compensation and require that those appointed to run school districts have some background in education.

A decade ago, folks like William Greider and Bill Moyers were doing critical, underreported work on the vagaries of international trade agreements which had similar anti-democratic ramifications. This Michigan power grab seems to be a homegrown varietal, of which the only precedent I can think of is the "Control Board" era of local governance here in Washington, D.C.

UPDATE: As has been pointed out to me, the legislative mechanics that Snyder is seeking to expand into what Republican state Senator Jack Brandenburg terms "financial martial law" were put in place by Democratic Governor Jim Blanchard -- the nonpartisan embrace of these policies further their likeness to the trade policies that people like Greider and Moyers reported on a decade ago
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