There's Been a Dictatorial Coup -- Koch Bros. Have a Bunch of Czars Running Cities Across Michigan | Alternet:
"It only took two weeks in March of 2011 for the ponderously titled� "Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act" �to be rushed through both houses of the legislature and signed by Snyder. Before the public knew it--BAM! --the governor was authorized to establish his own autocratic republic: Michiganistan. At bottom, the LGSDFA Act is a doozy of autocratic mischief-making. It lets the governor seize control of any local government he deems to be in fiscal trouble, suspend the people's democratic authority, impose a corporatized version of martial law, and install his own "emergency financial manager" to govern by diktat..."
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I don't think there is any way, only a year and a half in, to judge the success or failure of this radical approach to local government fiscal crisis. I know there has been a great outcry from the local officials who are involved, and the left seems to view it as a corporate takeover.
2 comments:
This strikes me as a rather hyperbolic analysis. Local governments are after all political subdivisions of the states. If the state has to step in and stand in the place of an insolvent local government, in my view it's far more appropriate than local governments condemning underwater properties in the hopes of solving their fiscal problems.
It is interesting to note that Sec. 15(a) of the Act (2011 PA 4) establishing all this authority states,
Sec. 15a. Notwithstanding section 3(1) of 1968 PA 317, MCL 15.323, an emergency manager appointed under this act or former 1988 PA 101 or former 1990 PA 72 is subject to all of the following:
(a) 1968 PA 317, MCL 15.321 to 15.330, as a public servant.
(b) 1973 PA 196, MCL 15.341 to 15.348, as a public officer.
(c) 1968 PA 318, MCL 15.301 to 15.310, as if he or she were a state officer.
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