The Power of an Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) - Charlie LeDuff

[Bozita]

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/charlie_leduff/the-power-of-an-emergency-financial-manager

The Power of an Emergency Financial Manager
Off The Chain

Updated: Thursday, 10 Mar 2011, 9:28 PM EST
Published : Thursday, 10 Mar 2011, 4:48 PM EST

Charlie LeDuff, Fox 2 News

myFOXdetroit.com - It is said that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini made the trains run on time. And if I were a peasant living in the crumbling alleys of 1920s Rome, I suppose I would have voted for him.

But the truth is Mussolini didn’t make the trains run on time. He simply said he made the train on time. And knowing how things turned out in Italy, I’m quite sure I wouldn’t vote for Il Duce now.

Which brings me to the goings-on in state government. Frustrated with incompetent governance and a river of red ink flowing through Detroit and Allen Park and Pontiac, the legislature has taken drastic steps to make our trains run on time.

The Senate on March 9 -- following the vote of the House last month -- passed a series of bills that give sweeping powers to emergency financial managers who would be assigned to struggling municipalities and school districts.

The emergency manager’s powers are almost unheard of in a democracy and go well beyond the Wisconsin repeal of collective bargaining that also passed March 9. It’s important to note that the Wisconsin bill excludes police and fire.

In Michigan, the emergency manager will have total power of the purse: with absolute authority the emergency manager will be able to sell assets like the water department, undo union contracts, abrogate collective bargaining agreements without discussion including those of police and fire. More worrisome still, the emergency manager will be able to dissolve local governments.

Seriously, that’s what we have here.

There is no doubt Michigan is bogged in a sump of red ink and public service unions have been able to spare their membership the necessary cuts in benefits and wages that private sector employees have had to endure. But tossing out representative government is our answer in Michigan?

I think my friends on the Detroit News editorial board put it best when they wrote: “The people have the right to elect their representatives even if they elect incompetent ones. It’s not the state’s job to shield them from the consequences of democracy.”

There can be little doubt these bills are aimed squarely at Detroit, a perennial debtor and a mismanaged municipality with the worst school district in the history of the United States.

But consider that the per capita debt of Detroit is about $9,000 while the per capita debt of the United States of America is about $45,000. Would Americans stomach the disbanding of Congress in favor of a financial czar? I doubt it. Where’s the Tea Party?

What is more, the emergency manager will not have to live in the jurisdiction or need to be an actual human being. Corporations may apply. Imagine a New Yorker with a green eyeshade running a red pen through the budget of a city he or she has never set foot in, and you receiving your pink slip from a call center in New Delhi.

more...

[Angry Dragon]

1. Each day brings this country closer to revolution

[jemelanson]

2. Coming to a city, county, state, country near you.

It will not stop with Michigan. Just like the unions busting laws will not stop with Wisconsin.

This is just one battle on the all out war on our way of life and our country.

Wake up and pay attention.

[roamer65]

3. OCP?

Is that the new corporation that will run Detroit?

I remember Charlie from my college days. Good piece on Michigan's Enabling Act.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. If it is not the state's job to shield them from the consequences of democracy

then it is not the state nor the feds job to bail them out either. If Detroit wants to go it alone, that would also mean no additional state spending for their city or schools.

Granting plenipotentiary powers is quite rare, and while I am not sure I agree with all of them, what other choices are there? Is there enough wealth left in Detroit to raise the funds necessary to go forward? Not from what I am reading.

What are the realistic alternatives to address the hole they are in? Having it turn into a version of Beirut is unacceptable.

[theaocp]

5. You're right

Hand all of us in Michigan over to corporations because they know what's best.

Are. you. fucking. kidding. me.

While I realize you are looking for alternatives, giving this "solution" even a hair's breadth of legitimacy is unacceptable. TPTB do not WANT to raise revenue, so we get these "solutions." Slash, slash, slash is the cry. It makes me weep for the weakness and pathetic follow-the-leader-into-the-abyss attitudes I see all around. Fuck this.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. I said nothing about corps

Generically, in government, private industry, and personal life, If you want outside money, it comes with strings. In this case, if the state and feds are going to have to bail Detroit out, there will be requirements and restrictions that come with it.

What I find both comic and tragic is that some (including Fox apparently) are taking almost a tea bagger approach to home rule while expecting the rest of us to fund "their democracy". That will not fly with the rest of us.

Detroit is either self funding and therefore self governing or it is not. Is there enough revenue for it to be solvent? Pretty much an apolitical question. If there is not, what cuts and how they are implemented will indeed be a controversial matter. Shrinking city limits and withdrawing services will seem minor at some point.

[theaocp]

8. "Is there enough revenue for it to be solvent? Pretty much an apolitical question."

Actually, since NOBODY will raise taxes, I guess it's all academic. Rule by dictate. We SAY there's no way to increase revenue, so therefore, we must make cuts and you'll like it. "Jawohl!"

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. If the politicians will not raise the required revenue, what should happen?

Outsiders are not going to pay the bills...

[theaocp]

10. There's always federal stimulus

but, otherwise, I guess the state dissolves any and all contracts and elected bodies and we are governed by a dictator. Literally. Then, it can spread to all fifty states and absolute power will corrupt absolutely. Au revoir, les Etats-Unis.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. Actually it may be the only way to get taxes raised.

If elected officials refuse to act responsibly, the EFM could order that done. We can conjecture what might happen, but if their instructions are to make the entity self supporting, that is a very likely outcome.

[theaocp]

12. Once the power is in their hands

do you honestly think they'll EVER give it up? Especially if it's a corporation in charge, it. will. be. all. about. the. money. and how to siphon it off from the public. You cannot act like these people are honest actors. They are not.

[Me.]

7. Is There A Court Challenge Here?

For the overturning of elections? Is this constitutional?