From Daily Kos: 18th largest city now run by unelected bureaucrat
In a stunning reminder of how anti-democratic Michigan government is, Gov. Rick Snyder said Friday he would appoint an emergency financial manager for Detroit.
This is an affront to democracy on at least two levels. First, we're talking about replacing the elected government of the 18th-largest city in the United States with an unelected bureaucrat expressly to undo actions undertaken by the elected government. Detroit's population is larger than those of Vermont, North Dakota or Wyoming. But Michigan Republicans are fine witheager totake democratic local control away from that many people.
Second, the law Snyder is using to appoint an emergency financial manager is a replacement for the emergency financial manager law that Michigan voters repealed in November. Just over a month after that repeal vote, Republican legislators passed and Snyder signed an overwhelmingly similar version of the law during their notorious lame duck session.
It's fitting, I guess, that if you're going to deprive around 700,000 people of their elected local government, you do so with a law nearly identical to one that had previously been repealed by voters. If you're going to act against democracy, you might as well double down. But the whole thing is appalling.
spartan61
(2,091 posts)of my youth. I can't believe how sneaky Snyder and the rethugs are and never seem to think about the real people who still live in DTW and in the rest of Michigan.
Gman
(24,780 posts)Words the GOP used to use in disdain for government.
longship
(40,416 posts)Now, after all the blabbing about letting Detroit go bankrupt -- or not -- my hometown is effectively bankrupt. And thanks to the wonderful Republicans in the statehouse who went against the voters' clearly stated will, Rick "The Shadow" Snyder gets to impose his turncoat (he ran as a moderate) will on the despised Democratic stronghold.
It stinks!!!
I cry for my hometown.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)With power of the purse.
Democracy, what democracy?
catbyte
(34,367 posts)worse off, with the dictator selling off public assets to private concerns. It is criminal.
MessiahRp
(5,405 posts)Believe me, downtown is rebuilding and thriving. It will obviously take awhile for the rest of Detroit to recover but it's happening. It just doesn't help that the state is run by the GOP and they want Detroit to fail. After all one less metropolis likely means one less Democratic voting bloc.
Dan Gilbert has done a lot in building some of the bigger buildings and rehabbing the area. His investment group has plunked a ton of cash into rebuilding the city. When Snyder and his goons started talking EFM, Gilbert and his team hit up every news network they could to talk about the direction Detroit is heading in.
Unfortunately there's no stopping the corrupt fuckers in the Michigan GOP.
Macoy51
(239 posts)Why doesnt the city just refuse the state bailout and keep control of their city?
Macoy