Michigan Law Strips Voter Of Their Rights

The Michigan Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act that Gov. Snyder signed into law which can strip local voters of their right to vote for elected officials and budgets.

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Michigan Messenger
By Eartha Jane Melzer
03.10.11

According to the law, which has already been approved in the House, the governor will be able to declare “financial emergency” in towns or school districts and appoint someone to fire local elected officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, and eliminate services.

Under the law whole cities or school districts could be eliminated without any public participation or oversight, and amendments designed to provide minimal safeguards and public involvement were voted down.

Yup, you read right, the governor can strip all the rights of the voters and appoint anyone he wants to appoint and the people will have no say what so ever.

“It takes every decision in a city or school district and puts it in the hands of the manager, from when the streets get plowed to who plows them and how much they are paid,” said Michigan State AFL-CIO president Mark Gaffney. “In schools, the manager would decide academics or if you have athletics.”

Talk about dictatorial powers. Is this the new Republican order. An article in the Huffington Post said,

"This isn't just about collective bargaining," said Lance Enderle, a Democrat who lost a bid to get elected to Congress last year and a leader of Tuesday's state Capitol protest. "This is about democracy."

This law has broad sweeping powers, it give the governor dictatorial powers, he is the emperor and a mayor better not cross him because if you stand in his way he can throw you out office and appoint one of his cronies to take your place. An article in Color Lines by Rinku Sen, he wrote,

The editors of Central Michigan Life note that financial emergency is broadly defined: “There is nothing stopping Snyder from declaring financial emergencies in municipalities whose officials he has a problem with, appointing his friends from corporate circles as the emergency managers who would then run the municipality in the way most profitable to themselves.”

Where else in history did we see these dictatorial powers?