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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John Conyers worries Michigan's new EFM law could unfairly target black communities

AP File PhotoU.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit).

U.S. Rep. John D. Conyers (D-Detroit) is criticizing a proposed state law to drastically strengthen the powers of emergency financial managers, calling it unconstitutional and saying it implicitly targets minority communities.

March 11, Michigan Messenger: The takeover provision of the legislation – allowing the dissolution of locally elected bodies — implicitly targets minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, without providing meaningful support for improved economic opportunity.

The bill — which will give EFMs in troubled municipalities and school districts the power to void collective bargaining agreements, sell off municipal assets and dissolve elected bodies — has been approved by the state House and Senate. Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to sign it into law this week.

Conyers isn't alone in questioning whether the bill could have racial motivations or unfairly impact cities with heavy black populations, such as Detroit. Political website Crooks & Liars wondered much the same thing in contemplating how the new EFM law could play out.

March 12, Crooks & Liars: It shouldn't come as any surprise that Detroit is one of the targeted cities. And while I wouldn't dare say it's race-motivated without some evidence beyond the obvious observation that Detroit is where Kwame Kilpatrickis was mayor, Dave Bing is mayor, and is a city where over 80% of the population is black. No, I wouldn't suggest it's racially motivated at all, but then again...

The piece goes on to quote state Sen. Jack Brandenburg countering concerns about local control, claiming "in a lot of these places there is no control.”

Of course, Detroit and majority-black suburbs like Inkster and Ecorse aren't the only municipalities struggling.  Allen Park, for instance, is 95 percent white and in the grip of serious fiscal issues. And Hamtramck, with only a 15 percent black population, is on life support.

But Conyers still raises a point worth considering. Over the past 11 years, Michigan governors have declared financial emergencies in seven municipalities, including the largely black cities of Ecorse, Benton Harbor, Highland Park, Pontiac and Flint. Meanwhile, the state has taken over Detroit's public school system twice since 1999, both times with dismal results.

In almost all of these instances, of course, the financial troubles have been dire indeed. But rather than acknowledge the debilitating affects of deindustrialization, white flight and corporate disinvestment on places like Detroit and Flint, too many observers have been content to simply blame changing racial dynamics. Has this then made it easier to target black-run cities in Michigan with legislation like the proposed EFM law? And will the new law be driven by, or exacerbate, these perceptions?  

The proposed law carries a number of disturbing implications, of course, not just racial ones. In figuring out the financial problems facing the state's cities and suburbs, we should be clear that the problem really comes down to one color in particular: Green.

Michigan Rally To Protect Anti-Worker Legislation March 16, 2011

Rally to Protest Michigan Anti-Worker Legislation March 16, 2011

Michigan Senate Fiscal Analysis of Emergency Financial Manager Bills

House gives broad powers over union contracts to emergency financial managers

Karen Bouffard / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing — The state House today passed a package of bills to grant emergency financial managers the power to toss out union contracts and fire elected officials in cities, counties, townships and school districts operating at a deficit.

All 47 House Democrats voted no on the bills, which were easily passed by the GOP majority.

"I'm just disgusted," said Barbara Davenport, 76, of Pontiac, who was among hundreds of citizens who viewed the vote from the gallery — most opposed to the bills. "I think it's unconstitutional to remove our elected officials."

About 800 firefighters also are picketing at the Capitol against repeal of binding arbitration for police and firefighters — who are not legally allowed to strike.

Many are clad in bright yellow fireproof suits and wearing firefighter helmets while clutching signs saying "PA 312 protects you!" and "Public safety is the bottom line."

It's one of several demonstrations planned today against Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed budget and scores of bills introduced in the Legislature opponents say are anti-union. Nearly 1,000 union members protested at the Capitol on Tuesday, as well as a few dozen tea party supporters.

School and municipal workers showed up to

to protest the laws passed in the House that would

grant broader powers to emergency financial managers.

"It's like they pick the umpires and complain about the balls and strikes," Chris Reynolds, district vice president for the Michigan Professional Firefighters Union, said about Republican lawmakers' desire to get rid of the binding arbitration law, which was put in place as an alternative to a strike. "PA 312 has worked for more than 40 years (to keep firefighters from striking.)"We don't want to strike, we just want to protect the public."

Grand Rapids firefighter Kevin Fox said firefighters need arbitration to help settle disputes over wages, benefits and other issues. There needs to be a way to resolve disputes without going out on strike, he said.

"I don't want to strike," Fox said. "But I don't want to lose my house either."

Firefighters, police and teachers are barred from striking under the Public Employment Relations Act of 1947. Lawmakers passed PA 312 in 1969 to require binding arbitration for police and firefighters.

"They do have the ability to collectively bargain just as the teachers do," said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall. "The only thing PA 312 does is it treats police and firefighters differently by requiring (binding) arbitration and they are the only public employees that have this special circumstance."

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110223/POLITICS02/102230413/House-gives-broad-powers-over-union-contracts-to-emergency-financial-managers#ixzz1EqgPL8EY