How do you build a city up armed only with implements of destruction?

This afternoon, Governor Rick Snyder announced that he will appoint an Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit calling it a “sad day” that he wished “had never happened in the history of Detroit”. As I have already detailed in a post that has been cited by MSNBC and Huffington Post among others, this will result in 49% of the African Americans in Michigan being without a democratically-elected government.

Click through for more.

I read this stuff so you don’t have to

A mere 37 days after voters repealed Public Act 4, Michigan’s notorious and anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law, Republican legislators passed a new version to replace it. It was signed into law as Public Act 436 thirteen days later. This defiant thumb-in-the-eye to the will of the voters was even more egregious since it contains two appropriations, one to pay Emergency Managers and another to hire consultants, lawyers, “work-out experts”, and others to implement the law. These appropriations ensure voters won’t have a chance to interfere with the business of our Very Serious GOP legislators on this matter again.

So, what, exactly, is in this new law? Well, for starters, let’s have a look at the title:

“THE LOCAL FINANCIAL STABILITY AND CHOICE ACT”

I’m not kidding. That’s what they call it. It’s surprising they didn’t figure out a way to include the words “FREEDOM” and “INDEPENDENCE” while they were at it. You can read the law HERE (pdf).

All the gory details of this new law after the jump.

A non-racist law with wildly racial impact

Back in December of 2011, I wrote a series of pieces that showed how Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law was having a skewed negative impact on African American cities. With Detroit on the verge of being assigned an Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) and with updated census data, it’s time to revisit the chart that put this law on the national radar.

In 2011, there were approximately 9,876,801 people in Michigan, about 1,402,506 (or 14.2%) of whom were African American. If Detroit gets an Emergency Financial Manager, 49% of the African Americans in Michigan will live in cities where their elected officials have been replaced by a single, state-appointed ruler.

Details after the jump.

Control-Alt-Delete

An accumulated deficit of $327 million. Unfunded obligations of nearly $15 billion with almost $2 billion due in the next five years. A District Court that is owed almost $280 million and which collects only 7.7% of what they are owed each year. A nearly $1 billion 2012 deficit masked by long-term borrowing with no foreseeable ability to pay it back. The city’s bond, pension and retiree health care liabilities account for 35 to 42 cents of every dollar the city takes in.

These items and more led to yesterday’s formal declaration by a state financial review team that, yes, Detroit is in a state of financial emergency without a plan to solve it. Not a big surprise to anyone paying attention but one that puts the situation into clear focus.

My analysis after the jump.

Some truth-telling from the judicial branch

Back in December, Pontiac Emergency Manager Lou Schimmel unilaterally decided to change the composition of the city’s pension board from 11 to 5 members. He thought they were wasting time and money and felt his role as the EM gave him the ability to simply do what he wished.

Yesterday, Oakland County Judge Rae Lee Chabot upheld a preliminary injunction filed by the pension board and reversed Schimmel’s action. In her smack-down of Schimmel’s move, she said “That’s what it looks like — it looks like a dictatorship where the (emergency financial manager) said, ‘look, I’m going to turn over the board so there is no opposition.'”

More after the jump.

This will be interesting

As he himself predicted last summer, Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris has been booted. In his place will be Tony Saunders II, a marketing guy from WYLD Marketing Group.

Details after the jump.

Look out, Detroit! It’s coming right for ya!

The Detroit Free Press is reporting this afternoon that an Emergency Financial Manager is being called “inevitable” for Detroit. If that happens, over half of the African Americans in Michigan will be under the rule of an Emergency Financial Manager, with little to no say in the operation of their local government.

Details and commentary after the jump.

They love you until you’re born

It’s getting pretty tough for Michigan Republicans to surprise me anymore but, dammit, they went ahead and did it anyway. This week, they introduced legislation that establishes a tax credit for unborn fetuses.

I’m not kidding.

This is why we need to be thinking about the 2014 midterm election

Back in August, I wrote about how the repeal of Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — would, by law, leave Michigan without any law creating Emergency Managers or Emergency Financial Managers. I showed pretty clearly how the law prevents PA 72, the predecessor to PA 4, from coming back.

This week, the Michigan Court of Appeals chose to completely disregard the Michigan constitution and, in essence, allow the resurrection of Zombie Law PA 72 anyway.

This one is easy

Third in a series on the ballot proposals on Michigan’s November 6, 2012 ballot. Read them all HERE.

Regular readers of this website know very well that I abhor Public Act 4 — Michigan’s so-called Emergency Manager Law. It is the most outrageous government overreach in my lifetime, put in place by hypocritical Republicans who claim that they are for “smaller government”. The fact is, there is no larger government intrusion into the lives of Michiganders than PA 4. Period.
Click through to read why you should VOTE NO ON PROPOSAL 1.

Emergency Managers: they’re not just for black folks anymore

Since it became clear that Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — Public Act 4 — was disproportionately impacting majority African American communities, I have been warning that this was something that wasn’t likely to stay confined to those towns. In fact, I have written, it was likely going to take a majority white city staring down the barrel of state-appointed dictator — a viceroy, if you will — before non-African American Michiganders would start to take notice.

Attention, white Michiganders: it’s time to take notice.

Details after the jump.