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Michigan Fights Back: Financial Martial Law Heading for Ballot
Michigan fights back against Rick Snyder
Whew. There are so many battles going on across this country against Republican governors’ power grabs based on the ALEC agenda that it’s hard to keep up with everything.
This week we’ve already learned that Ohio is fighting back against Kasich’s anti-union bill with wild success, and now we learn that the fighting spirit of Michigan has roused up more than half the votes they need to put Snyder’s democracy killing emergency financial manager law on the ballot. The group organizing the referendum against Governor Rick Snyder’s Financial Martial Law (“Public Act 4″) is nearing the number they need, seven months before the signatures are due.
Michigan Forward has gathered 120,000 signatures of the required 161,304 total.
PA 4 is the law that allows the Governor to appoint an emergency financial manager to strip powers from local elected officials. It went into effect in April. The Emergency Manager Law is also being challenged in state courts, as it strips elected officials of their power, effectively killing democracy in the process. If you’re wondering what all of the fuss is about, this law “… allows Snyder to declare a “financial emergency” in a city or school district and appoint a manager with broad powers, including the ability to fire local elected officials, break teachers’ and public workers’ contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services—and even eliminate entire cities or school districts without any public input.”
As a result of Snyder’s draconian expansion of the pre-existing financial manager law, Benton Harbor has seen their city park privatized in effect, and handed to the Whirlpool Corporation for golfing purposes (Republican Congressman Fred Upton, the representative from that district, is the grandson of Whirlpool’s founder).
The Detroit Free Press reports:
The managers have laid off employees, privatized services, cut wages and increased health care costs for employees.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office now provides policing in Pontiac; the City of Ecorse cut its fire department by more than half and is privatizing EMS. Benton Harbor police and firefighters now cross-train to do each other’s jobs, and a 10% wage cut has been proposed for DPS employees.
The mere threat of appointment of an emergency financial manager has been used effectively as a weapon in negotiations with unions, as just happened in Northville, Michigan (an affluent suburb of Metro Detroit). During contract talks with teachers, Northville threatened the appointment of an emergency financial manager if the teachers didn’t concede to the demands.
Other districts are still fighting the draconian cuts, with Unions representing some of the least paid teachers in the Detroit Public Schools district filing a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging the constitutionality of the Emergency Financial Manager’s unilateral modification of union contracts.
While Michigan is undeniably facing tough times, Snyder and the Republican legislature have used the retracting and depressed economy as an excuse to subvert democracy and gain control over cities and districts in a manner that appears to clearly violate the constitution. The notion that unions have been unreasonable in negations doesn’t hold up when one looks at the facts, especially in light of the tax cuts Snyder et al have given to corporations in the state, whose sole purpose seems to be to reward campaign contributors and hand over the power of the state to corporates, as we are seeing in Benton Harbor. If Michiganders don’t stop him, Rick Snyder will turn Michigan into one corporate logo, with Michigan’s treasures like her state and city parks privatized for only the elite to enjoy.
Once the signatures are verified in March of 2012, the law will go on hold until the November 2012 elections.
Yes, you heard that right. The law will go on hold when they get enough signatures. And yes, they need volunteers, as they are hoping to do a huge push for Labor Day. The group is shooting for 250,000 signatures in order to allow for invalid signatures.
Michiganders are not going quietly into Snyder’s bad night. They’re fighting back at the ballot box like good citizens do (Perhaps “Ballots, not Bullets” should be the slogan for those who are fighting the Fascist tendencies of the current ALEC Republican agenda). Labor groups will come together for a parade on Labor Day in the metro Detroit area, replete with labor unions, the folks from Michigan Forward, and Progressive radio host Tony Trupiano. If you’ve never been to Michigan or the midwest, you might not understand just whom Rick Snyder is messing with. George Robinson sums up the fight of a Michigander in this video, where he warns people, “Vote Republican, cut your own throat!”
Rick shouldn’t have messed with Michigan. He really shouldn’t have messed with Michigan.
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16 Responses to Michigan Fights Back: Financial Martial Law Heading for Ballot
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Larry W.
Aug. 19th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
I was born and raised in Michigan. Why on earth would any of them vote those anti-American Repugnicans into office in the first place?
e
Aug. 19th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Because Faux Noise and Rupert lie to them every day and now they’re full of hate for their neighbors.
Erin Clifford
Aug. 22nd, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Snyder campaigned as a fiscal moderate Republican. There was only one debate, and of course nothing was mentioned of PA4, or raising taxes on working people, or taxing pensions, or stealing from the school aid fund…
Anne
Aug. 19th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
I can’t think of a more deserving group of bozos than these Republican governors to be challenged and ultimately ousted from office. They are a bunch of contemptible, anti-American dolts who overplayed their hands. I have never in my lifetime seen voters’ remorse develop so quickly. These clowns have only been in office for 7 months, and the only advantage of their ascent to power is that a lot of people have gotten a badly needed reality check.
novenator
Aug. 19th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
This tyranny needs to be killed in it’s infancy. There is no way that anyone can argue that democracy can justifiably be undermined by overlords appointed by governors who can literally fire local elected officials and impose “new contracts” on people.
mel in oregon
Aug. 19th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
the only hope for america is at the grass roots level. getting rid of these evil republican governors is a good first step.
Shiva (Moderator)
Aug. 19th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
this is absolutely wonderful news. Michigan has always been a Democrat state and I have no idea why it suddenly went Republican. Perhaps it is all the jobs that they have lost, and the problem being that it’s not the government’s fault. I think corporations that move their work overseas should pay a heavy toll for it. And everybody knows it’s simply for wages.
I wish both Ohio and Michigan the very best in getting these laws repealed. I do not understand how one person could be for or approve of these laws.this is different from the tea party, where they are against the American workers and totally for corporations and for burning their own parents and children to the ground. Real American patriots fight for the rights of Americans.
mikeyhatesit
Aug. 21st, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Michigan was always a weird state, strongly spiritual yet fiercely protective of individuals’ rights. Immigrants from countries where family was a legitimate value. Lots of churchgoers who strongly believed in community welfare, which is part of why there was such a strong union presence and a resistance to race-based laws.
For those raised in the 60s and later, their parents worked hard to give those kids options outside of factory work. But I think this backfired because life was better for the new generation, as it should be; every parent should strive for children to have more opportunities than they did. What they learned in school wasn’t necessarily what they would have learned on the line. I’ve met people from my own generation, with Union parents that lived their lives on the factory floor, that would think Pamela Gellar is a credible source. Glenn Beck is a fount of wisdom. David Barton knows more about history than anyone else.
I’m a middle class kid myself. My parents were white collar types in the auto industry. But I still knew that everybody is equal, know matter how much they were paid. Every ballot cast was worth the same, whether it was from a line worker or an executive. It probably didn’t help that the woman who babysat me on weekends was from England, and in retrospect, was likely a democratic socialist. She was a devout Episcopalian; and was involved in multiple community charities, such as knitting caps for newborn babies for the local hospitals. My deafness definitely had an impact, as well, since I would never discriminate against anyone for superficial reasons like race or gender.
But I’m appalled by those from my own generation who never seemed to learn the lessons of their parents, their ancestors, or those who fought for civil rights in their own community. The same values of their predecessors are still there, but warped by ignorance into a view that only those who share the same faith and race are worthy of charity. Snyder, Blackwater, Whirlpool, and the Hutaree are all horrifying examples of that extremism taken to the wrong conclusion, and give Michigan a thoroughly undeserved reputation.
Shiva (Moderator)
Aug. 21st, 2011 at 11:26 pm
I lived in Michigan for 50 years, It was a wonderful p[lace to live. I came from a very poor family, dad worked the factory and the farm until I was old enough at 15 to run the farm for him.
But I will never understand why they thought a republican would do a better job
Erin Clifford
Aug. 22nd, 2011 at 12:48 pm
We are really starting to wake up here in Michigan. No one had any idea that this draconian move would be made. And, you would be surprised at how many think that this law is just fine and dandy(these are usually Republicans who will support the party no matter what it does, or business owners who are loving Snyder’s business tax cut). I have been circulating petitions to repeal this law, as well as to recall Gov. Snyder since May, and I am getting tired of doing it, but no way will I give up. Did they just think no one would notice?
Irukandji
Aug. 19th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Having lived in Michigan my whole life, things have really changed here politically. Used to be a true Democrat state, but the gop has pumped in millions of dollars with the help of anti-union corporations. Synder never once mentioned any of the things he has signed into law / or is trying to pass during his campaign. Typical right-wing tactics, tell them as little as possible then do as you please once in office. =/
John Wilson
Aug. 20th, 2011 at 12:04 am
If you can’t beat them cheat is the gov’s motto. How un-American can he stoop to pass a measure like this one.
Concerned Canadian
Aug. 20th, 2011 at 9:59 am
this is all scary stuff, if its happening at this level imagine what a republican at the head of the country would do.
you know someone is a bad candidate when the banks of wallstreet are telling him they are behind him 100%
how many times do americans have to get screwed before they wake up!
prddem
Aug. 20th, 2011 at 11:20 am
Reading this made me (honestly) sick to my stomach. It’s not just a sad day in America when stripping away rights is so blatant, it’s, well, let’s see…….: Governor Rick Perry, what would you say about a government entity overreaching their authority? How would this be handled in Texas? Answer from Governor Perry: I’ll tell ya’ in Texas we wouldn’t treat’em so well. Why, I might even call it treacherous, ah…. I mean treasonous. The Republican Party is no longer a viable, ethical entity. It’s been morphed into a Corporate Political Faction Party and Republicans in power are giving away everything they get their hands on.
dog bite attorney los angeles
Aug. 22nd, 2011 at 1:04 am
We have to change things and before that we should change and then we can expect to change someone else or any rule.
Sergio
Aug. 28th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
This is goof News P4 was a particularly disturbing bit of legislation akin to say imminent domain on roids then experiencing roidrage i cant see how any constitutional scholar lawery or legislator could support this