Behind Michigan's "Financial Martial Law": Corporations and Right-Wing Billionaires (Mother Jones)

[kpete]

Behind Michigan's "Financial Martial Law": Corporations and Right-Wing Billionaires
Jim West/ZUMAPRESS.com

The think tank that inspired Gov. Rick Snyder's budget bill is bankrolled by Koch money and some of the same donors that backed Wisconsin's attack on unions.

— By Andy Kroll

Wed Mar. 23, 2011 12:01 AM PDT

Last week, Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed into law a fiercely contested bill giving unelected "emergency financial managers" unprecedented power to shred union contracts, privatize city services, and consolidate or dissolve local governments, all in the name of saving struggling cities and school districts. Dubbed "financial martial law" by one approving state GOP lawmaker and "disaster capitalism" by critics, Snyder and his bill have become a target for Wisconsin-like protests. Several thousand demonstrators marched on the Michigan Capitol in the days before Snyder signed the bill. But gone unmentioned is a little-known Michigan think tank that for years has been pushing for the most controversial provisions in Snyder's bill—and that's bankrolled by some of the same right-wing millionaires and billionaires that backed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his anti-union legislation.

Since 2005, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has urged reforms to Michigan law giving more power and protection to emergency financial managers, state-appointed officials who parachute into ailing cities or school districts and employ drastic measures to fix budgets on the brink of collapse. In January, the free-market-loving center published four recommendations, including granting emergency managers the power to override elected officials (such as a mayor or school board member) and toss out union contracts. All four ended up in Snyder's legislation.

"The Mackinac Center has been tight at the hip with the Republican Party establishment for years," says Doug Pratt, public affairs director at the Michigan Education Association. "It goes to their funding sources; it goes to their ideology."

Mackinac is part of a network of state-based groups associated with the Heritage Foundation, the influential right-wing think tank in Washington. Its past and present board members include Robert Teeter, a GOP strategist and '92 campaign manager for George H.W. Bush; Margaret Rieker, a former vice chairwoman of the Republican National Committee; and Joseph Lehman, a former vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington.

much more:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/michigan-snyder-mackinac-center

[Tippy]

1. K&R......

[Pathwalker]

2. I wonder if Tim Skubik is a graduate of this "institute".

This sob has the most slanted coverage of any reporter on local tv. With that jerk on the local NBC station running a close second. They talk like Snyder is God, and the people are hooligans - their favorite word. They're ruining this state.

[Starry Messenger]

3. k&r

must read

[bobthedrummer]

4. ^

[highplainsdem]

5. The Mackinac Center works with ALEC. See these links:

Hector Solon's links to his DKos diary on this, plus some excerpts, posted here as a reply in my very long compilation topic on ALEC (reply #140 there):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230#741425

And as another example, from the Mackinac.org site, this page

http://www.mackinac.org/14443

what has a summary of ALEC's "State Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare":

http://www.alec.org/AM/pdf/hhs/State_Leg_Guide_to_Repealing_ObamaCare.pdf