I am surprised no one has posted a thread about this yet. It seems that the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder put a little law into place that if a municipality has financial "issues", the governor will appoint an "Emergency Manager" who can dismiss elected officials-including mayors. The "Emergency Manager" can also sell off public property, shred union and other contracts. So far Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Pontiac, are under an "emergency manager." Detroit is the next one to go. What is really interesting about all of these cities-combined, you have about 50% of the black voters in Michigan-black voters who tend to vote Democrat. So, let's just make it so their vote doesn't count.

http://www.sugarlaw.org/democracy-emergency/

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-show/45607138


I don't care which side of the isle you want to be on-this is an issue that EVERYONE should be concerned with. If Michigan gets away with this, it can happen in other states, too. And there goes Democracy.


    First they came for the communists,
    and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

    Then they came for the trade unionists,
    and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

    Then they came for the Jews,
    and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

    Then they came for me
    and there was no one left to speak out for me.

                              -Martin Niemöller



Cat

"Emergency Manage" is a deceptive title.

Rust Belt cities have been dying slowly for two generations.  You can't have democracy without a middle class and you can't have a middle class without civic infrastructure.  Unemployment in those cities in 30+ %, the schools are a shambles, crime rates are through the roof, and the roads and buildings are crumbling. 

This is how fascism is going to plant itself:  Through citizen disempowerment, demoralization, and civil decay.
::)

Ecorse is a sh*t hole. I used to work there.

They got a steel mill with 2000 workers and all sorts of other businesses there but they can't seem to balance the budget. But hey, there is a party store on almost every block.  :P

Here is a link to Michigan's website which dispels some of the misinformation going around.  Michigan has had an emergency manager law on the books since 1988 (signed in by a Democrat governor).  Local elected officials can only be removed from office if they refuse to provide information or assistance to the manager, and the Governor has had the power to remove elected officials from office since 1963; this power is written into the State's constitution.  Governor Jennifer Granholm used this power to initiate removal proceedings against Kwame Kilpatrick who was then Mayor of Detroit.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/snyder/EMF_Fact_Sheet2_347889_7.pdf

Pennsylvania just "took over" Harrisburg. The mayor and council get to keep their jobs but the state calls all the spending shots. Can't spend a nickel without state approval.  H-burg got itself into a $300MM hole by building an incinerator nobody wanted, plus other out of control spending.

Picksburgh was similary taken over (financially) by Pennsylvania's Act 47, and it is getting very close to being able to exit.  Prior to the state takeover the town was headed to bankruptcy.  The state took control of the town's finances and all budgets had to pass muster with an Act 47 committee which was staffed with appointees.

The "emergency manager" in Benton Harbor wants to sell off a public beach front park in order to build a private golf course.  This is pure bull.

The "emergency manager" in Benton Harbor wants to sell off a public beach front park in order to build a private golf course.  This is pure bull.


Does Benton Harbor have any other sources of revenue other than the Michigan Dole? I'm guessing he is doing this to raise cash.  The median household income there is around $17k, so jacking up taxes is probably not gonna get the job done.  

Benton Harbor, a town of 10,000 people, has a net debt of about $3.4million and it was racking up annual deficits in the $1MM range.  And its population continues to drop. Their pension system is underfunded by $10MM, too.  From what I have read, in 2012 the city budget will have been balanced, and a small $400k surplus will exist to start paying down the debt.  They still got a long way to go.

I used to live about 20 miles from Benton Harbor... Another Michigan sh*t hole; damn I've lived or worked in some real garden spots. (Used to live/work near Gary Indiana and East St Louis IL too)  Most of the news was about somebody getting shot, busted selling crack, domestic violence, you name it.

The mayor, of course, objected to the Emergency Manager.  He claims that the local government was about to get things straightened out.  Yeah, after 20+ years of decay somebody is gonna believe THAT.  ::)  I would imagine that their 'recovery plan' consisted of sticking their hand out to the Federal Government (or the Michigan State government) and picking the pockets of taxpayers who do not live in Benton Harbor and likely never will.

Oh... and the Emergency Manager was appointed by Governor Jennifer Granholm, before Public Act 4 was even passed.

Some details on my old stomping grounds of Ecorse Michigan, home to the second largest steel mill that US Steel operates and pays thousands of tax dollars into.  Not too many USS people live in Ecorse though, and who could blame them.  They tend to live in Dearborn, River Rouge, Trenton, Wyandotte, and Grosse Ile.


In 1986 the town filed for bankruptcy and Wayne County Court installed a receivership that lasted for the next 4 years.
In 2009, Governor Granholm, alarmed at a $9MM deficit in this town of 9,500 people, declared a financial emergency and sent in an Emergency Manager.
In September 2009, the Mayor and City Controller were arrested on charges of conspiracy, fraud, and bribery due to various bribes and kickback that were uncovered.  Oh the horror...
Median family income is somewhere in the mid-$30k range, so a reasonable tax basis exists, when considering the various industrial entities there.
The town presently has a $5MM per year deficit (That's about $500 per person) and the emergency manager has to eliminate it.
Ecorse's Emergency Manager is a lady by the name of Joyce Parker, an African American.  So much for Act 4 as being an attack on the black power base.
Ms. Parker recently got rid of the town-run EMS department, to cut inefficient spending.


This little town of 9,500 has its own police department, its own school system, its own fire department, you-name-it.  It's time for small decaying towns to start merging (or at least merging services) so that costs can be reduced.  My school district here in PA did just that a couple a years ago.

Ecorse's manager did not abrogate the Firefigher Union contract.  She simply waited for it to expire, and then established her own set of rules, whereas the city officials would have simply kept on doing the same things and waiting for somebody else (the State or the Federal government) to foot the bill.