Congressional Letter To Michigan Governor Rick Snyder On Emergency Manager Takeover Of Detroit

Congressional and Stete Elected Officials Letter to Governor Snyder Regarding Emergency Manager Law Public ...
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Ed Garvey: Takeovers show how GOP aims to steal election

Ed Garvey: Takeovers show how GOP aims to steal election
We began discussing the so-called financial emergency legislation shortly after Michigan’s Walker-like governor; Rick Snyder, seized control of the city of Benton Harbor. In a move of questionable constitutionality, Snyder, a pal of our Gov. Scott Walker and Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich, simply hit the delete button and elected officials were no more. I posted a blog suggesting that Walker, with support from the Greater Milwaukee Committee, was planning to ask the Legislature for the authority to permit Wisconsin’s governor to do the same to any elected entity if, in his view, there was a fiscal emergency. The Walker administration quickly denied that such a plan was in the works but since Walker was working with Foley and Lardner on the legislation, it seemed that the cries of “innocent” were insincere.

Snyder, Kasich, and Walker are three peas in a pod — anti-democrats all. They seemed to be singing from the same hymnal. Walker would get rid of public sector unions; Snyder would use legislation to take over economically troubled local governments or school districts, with no duty to consult with elected officials. Kasich got his legislature to pass a bill severely restricting public employee union rights. It is governor as dictator. (Where is Charlie Chaplin when we need him?)

Although Ohio voters overturned Kasich’s anti-union law in a November referendum, Snyder is now proceeding full speed ahead. He is reaching out well beyond Benton Harbor looking for takeover targets. Pontiac and Inkster have felt the lash. Guess who will be the biggest fish in the net unless we stop Snyder? Wait, wait don’t tell me … Detroit! Mayor Dave Bing and Congressman John Conyers are getting prepared for a fight to stop Snyder’s incredible power grab but Snyder will try to pull it off all in the name of fiscal emergency.

One thing Snyder’s “victims” share is that a majority of citizens in the target cities are black. Hot news: Most blacks like President Obama and plan to vote for him next November. Who will monitor the elections? Who will handle voter registration? One very white Gov. Snyder, of course. Remember Florida, hanging chads and butterfly ballots? Do you believe George W. Bush won fair and square in 2000? How about Ohio in 2004?

If the right wing can take over a city — Detroit, for example — they will do it. All sorts of mischief can, and undoubtedly will, happen. We were shocked in 2000. We were shocked again in 2004 when exit polls made it clear that Kerry would win but something happened and suddenly states called for Kerry were put into the red column. In my wildest dreams I would not have guessed that the right wing would literally steal elections, but after the shenanigans in the past three presidential elections, I not only think they are capable of cheating in 2012, I think it is a certainty.

What are the Democrats doing about this? Not much. The U.S. attorney general must be on sabbatical. Apparently, the Democrats continue to think that elections are a fair fight. This will not be a fair fight. Thanks to Citizens United, the GOP will have over a billion dollars to adopt gerrymandered districts, defeat Obama, and make gains in the Congress. It is not a fair fight and we are in trouble!

After watching the last big GOP debate, I can hardly wait for Obama vs. Newt Gingrich or Obama vs. Mitt Romney — any one of this group of clowns will do. I wouldn’t hire one of these Republicans.

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U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr.'s Letter to Attorney General Regarding Michigan Emergency Manager, December 1, 2011

Letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder from U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. requesting review of constitutionality of Michigan Public Act 4 of 2011 regarding the appointment of an Emergency Financial Manager over the City of Detroit.

U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr.'s Letter to Attorney General Regarding Michigan Emergency Manager, De...
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John Conyers Says Unconstitutional Michigan Emergency Financial Manager Law

John Conyers Says Unconstitutional Michigan Emergency Financial Manager Law

Attack on Middle-Class Jobs, Workers Is Nationwide

Attack on Middle-Class Jobs, Workers Is Nationwide

The incredible response and mobilizations against the coordinated attacks on workers’ rights and middle-class jobs in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana have grabbed most of the media spotlight during the past few weeks.

But there are other serious assaults under way in dozens of states, pushed by corporate CEOs and their Republican puppets. Perhaps flying lowest under the radar is one of the most drastic measures, one that even its own supporters blatantly call Michigan’s “financial martial law.”

The so-called emergency managers bill would allow Gov. Rick Snyder (R) 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 contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services—and even eliminate whole cities or school districts without any public input, according to the Michigan Messenger.

Last week, more than 1,500 people jammed the Lansing Capitol building to protest the bill during the state Senate’s debate. Ken Bower, a United Steelworker (USW) Local 2-21 member from Escanaba, Mich., said:

I’m here to tell the governor that he has to stop this attack on working-class citizens. Removing the people that we put into office without any check or balance is completely undemocratic.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) warns that that the bill:

empowers this financial czar with the governor’s approval to force a municipality into bankruptcy, a power that will surely be used to extract further concessions from hardworking public-sector workers.

Different versions of the bill have passed the state Senate and House and final action is expected early this week.

In a related note from Michigan, if there is any question what side Snyder stands on—CEOs’ or working people’s—his budget and tax proposals show he is firmly camped out with his corporate friends. Pat Garofalo at Think Progress points out:

Snyder has proposed ending his state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, cutting a $600 per child tax credit, and reducing credits for seniors, while also cutting funding for school districts by eight to ten percent. At the same time, as the Michigan League for Human Services found, the state’s business taxes would be reduced by nearly $2 billion, or 86 percent.

Elsewhere:

• So-called right to work bills have been introduced in more than a dozen states, including Indiana (temporarily off the table), Maine, Michigan and Pennsylvania with Republican legislatures and governors.

• Paycheck deception bills that would silence workers’ voices in the election process have been or soon will be introduced in nearly two dozen states, including 15 where Republicans control the legislature and hold the governor’s office, including Florida where the bill was approved by a Senate committee this morning.

• Prevailing wage laws protect communities and workers from unscrupulous contractors low-balling bids on taxpayer-funded construction projects by setting wage rates to the local or prevailing standard. Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), with the support of construction industry CEOs, vows to eliminate Ohio’s prevailing wage law, and legislation has been or will soon be introduced in 19 states, including  nine with dual Republican control.

• In 22 states—12 with Republican governors and legislatures—moves are under way to eliminate Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) that would hurt communities, workers and small businesses by lowering wages.

• Public school teachers and employees are fighting back against assaults in more than a dozen states, including some so-called “education reform” proposals that are thinly veiled attacks on teachers’ rights and privatization schemes.

• Bills attacking immigrant workers’ rights and immigrant children’s education, including many patterned after Arizona’s anti-immigrant law passed last year, have been or will soon be introduced in some 30 states, half of which are Republican controlled.

John Conyers worries Michigan's new EFM law could unfairly target black communities

AP File PhotoU.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit).

U.S. Rep. John D. Conyers (D-Detroit) is criticizing a proposed state law to drastically strengthen the powers of emergency financial managers, calling it unconstitutional and saying it implicitly targets minority communities.

March 11, Michigan Messenger: The takeover provision of the legislation – allowing the dissolution of locally elected bodies — implicitly targets minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, without providing meaningful support for improved economic opportunity.

The bill — which will give EFMs in troubled municipalities and school districts the power to void collective bargaining agreements, sell off municipal assets and dissolve elected bodies — has been approved by the state House and Senate. Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to sign it into law this week.

Conyers isn't alone in questioning whether the bill could have racial motivations or unfairly impact cities with heavy black populations, such as Detroit. Political website Crooks & Liars wondered much the same thing in contemplating how the new EFM law could play out.

March 12, Crooks & Liars: It shouldn't come as any surprise that Detroit is one of the targeted cities. And while I wouldn't dare say it's race-motivated without some evidence beyond the obvious observation that Detroit is where Kwame Kilpatrickis was mayor, Dave Bing is mayor, and is a city where over 80% of the population is black. No, I wouldn't suggest it's racially motivated at all, but then again...

The piece goes on to quote state Sen. Jack Brandenburg countering concerns about local control, claiming "in a lot of these places there is no control.”

Of course, Detroit and majority-black suburbs like Inkster and Ecorse aren't the only municipalities struggling.  Allen Park, for instance, is 95 percent white and in the grip of serious fiscal issues. And Hamtramck, with only a 15 percent black population, is on life support.

But Conyers still raises a point worth considering. Over the past 11 years, Michigan governors have declared financial emergencies in seven municipalities, including the largely black cities of Ecorse, Benton Harbor, Highland Park, Pontiac and Flint. Meanwhile, the state has taken over Detroit's public school system twice since 1999, both times with dismal results.

In almost all of these instances, of course, the financial troubles have been dire indeed. But rather than acknowledge the debilitating affects of deindustrialization, white flight and corporate disinvestment on places like Detroit and Flint, too many observers have been content to simply blame changing racial dynamics. Has this then made it easier to target black-run cities in Michigan with legislation like the proposed EFM law? And will the new law be driven by, or exacerbate, these perceptions?  

The proposed law carries a number of disturbing implications, of course, not just racial ones. In figuring out the financial problems facing the state's cities and suburbs, we should be clear that the problem really comes down to one color in particular: Green.

Morning Quote: Rep. John Conyers Calls Michigan Martial Law Unconstitutional

Morning Quote: Rep. John Conyers Calls Michigan Martial Law Unconstitutional

In response to the anti-Democratic martial law being enacted in Michigan, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) fired back, calling the bill unconstitutional, emphasis mine:

Worse yet, this bill raises serious constitutional concerns. Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits any State from impairing a contract, which is exactly what this legislation does. As the Supreme Court has held in Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell (1934), the sanctity of contracts cannot be impaired by a state law “which renders them invalid, or releases or extinguishes them . . . . Not only are existing laws read into contracts in order to fix obligations as between the parties, but the reservation of essential attributes of sovereign power is also read into contracts as a postulate of the legal order.”

Rep. Conyers also inferred that some parts of this bill may be racially motivated, something Karoli at Crooks and Liars has also suggested:

The takeover provision of the legislation – allowing the dissolution of locally elected bodies — implicitly targets minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, without providing meaningful support for improved economic opportunity.

Finally, Conyers also pointed out that by forcing a community in to bankruptcy (which will likely be done to force union consessions for public sector workers or just to break the collective bargaining contracts which the EMF also has the legal authority to do), the financial situation of the community will actually become worse.

Further, the bill empowers this financial czar with the Governor’s approval to force a municipality into bankruptcy, a power that will surely be used to extract further concessions from hardworking public sector workers. And, by making the risk of bankruptcy a reality, the bill will make it more not less expensive for municipalities to obtain financing given this risk, which will make the financial circumstances of municipalities even worse.

Taking it through the courts could take years. In the meantime, thanks to the Republican controlled House and Senate in Michigan, along with our new Dictator Republican Governor Rick Snyder, the people of Michigan will suffer, because this bill is the most draconian, the most un-Democratic piece of legislation in this country right now.