This bill is set to be rammed through the legislature at break neck speed. The new "Local Government and School District Accountability Act" in essence is radical, if not a fanatical bill. If it should become law, in its present form, the bill would "disenfranchise" certain communities, the majority being struggling minority-majority locations.
Under the unbelievably rugged provisions, many black/ethic voters would see their votes cast summarily voided, and local elected officials would be ejected from local control (disregarding the ballot box results) and excluded from public office for a long period of years.
This kind of legislation is set to be fast-tracked through to a floor vote, posthaste.
The impact on public employees, local elected government leaders, police and firefighters, teachers and other public servants would be harsh and overly severe.
Many people of color will be directly and adversely affected by such a legislative act. To remove the right to vote and void the power of the ballot box; destroying one's right to elect public officers it disenfranchises communities and reverses the intent of the voter rights struggle of the recent past.
The Law, if enacted, would:
1.) List 18 explicit events that would trigger a financial review by the state
2.) Include the director of the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget on the four-member review team (replacing the auditor general), and allow the governor to appoint more members to the team.
3.) Make explicit the differences between the municipal government and the school district review and intervention processes
4.) Set in place 12 review criteria
5.) Allow the governmental unit or school to be run by a "firm" rather than an "individual"
6.) Allow the Governor, after declaring a financial state of emergency, to "allow for appointment of emergency financial managers by the state treasurer or state school superintendent"
7.) Allow the state treasurer and state school superintendent to declare that a local government is in receivership, as they appoint an emergency financial manager
8.) Specifies that an emergency manager would be chosen on the basis of competence; need not be a resident of the local government; may be an individual or firm; and would serve at the pleasure of the state treasurer, with the concurrence of the state school superintendent
9.) Explicitly identify an emergency financial manager's extensive power and authority by listing 32 actions a manager may take, 16 of which are new
10.) Bust the unions - " Grant an appointed emergency financial manager the authority to abrogate existing labor contracts..."
11.) Remove local elected officials from office in financially distressed governments in receivership, and prohibit them from seeking office for 10 years
12.) Provide an explicit exit strategy to enable formerly struggling local governments to emerge from financial emergency status during which time local officials are prohibited from revising the emergency manager's two-year budget, labor contracts, or ordinances
13.) Suspend collective bargaining for up to five years in local governments placed in Receivership
Background:
Seven Michigan communities have had emergency financial managers appointed under Public Act 72 of 1990: Hamtramck (in 2000); Highland Park (in 2001); Flint (in 2002); Village of Three Oaks (in 2008); Ecorse (in 2009); Pontiac (in 2009); and Benton Harbor (in 2010). Additionally, a financial manager was appointed for the Detroit Public School District in 2009.
Definitions. Under the bill, the term "municipal government" is defined to mean a city, village, township, charter township, county, an authority established by law, or a public utility owned by a city, village, township or county.
The term "school district" is defined to mean a school district, an intermediate school district, or a public school academy (customarily called a charter school.) The term "state financial authority" is defined to mean (1) for a municipal government, the state treasurer, (2) for a school district, the superintendent of public instruction.
A long technical list of conditions is spelled out. Among them the item that requires the unit that is designated as in "financial emergency" to foot the bill: Employ at the expense of the local government and with approval of the state treasurer or state school superintendent, auditors and other technical personnel. Further these state appointed firms, auditors, or technical personnel are to have the power to liquidate the assets of the school or municipal unit: Power to sell, lease, or otherwise use the unit(s) public assets.
This bill goes far down the path of state dictatorial power over local government. Who wrote this terrible legislation and what was their authentic intent or must we guess?
Original Post.
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