A new "emergency" law backed by right-wing think tanks is turning Michigan cities over to powerful managers who can sell off city hall, break union contracts, privatize services—and even fire elected officials.
b_b: I am one of a very few Detroit residents that is wholly in favor of a financial manager. Our city is bankrupt and run by corrupt leaders who are barely educated. This isn't about sovereignty or democracy. This is about mismanagement of a multibillion dollar budget to the detriment of the community. What they don't (won't) tell you in Mother Jones is that Benton Harbor now has an operating surplus thanks to their financial manager, and Pontiac is on its way to cleaning house.The state has every right to protect its assets (its cities are definitely its assets) in the same way the federal government had every right to impose civil rights into states that were unwilling to adopt them (the cries of usurping democracy came strongly out of the South in the 60s, let's remember). At this point, I would definitely vote for a 2nd term for Snyder (and I never vote Republican, for the record). He's not a Tea Party ideologue, as Rachel Maddow and Mother Jones have tried to portray him; he's actually very centrist and intellectual.