Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 -- 5:05 pm
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is reportedly following the lead of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) by preparing a plan that would allow him to possibly take over municipalities that don't pass a financial stress test.
"[T]he Walker legislation would empower the governor to insert a financial manager of his choosing into local government with the ability to cancel union contracts, push aside duly elected local government officials and school board members and take control of Wisconsin cities and towns whenever he sees fit to do so," according to Forbes.
The reports first received public attention Monday when Madison, Wisconsin attorney and activist Ed Garvey made the claim on Wisconsin Public Radio.
In March, thousands showed up to protest the Michigan plan that gave emergency financial managers the power to terminate labor contracts and even dissolves or consolidate cities.
Republican Michigan state Sen. Jack Brandenburg has described his state's bill as "financial martial law," according to The Malcolm Daily Tribune.
By Chad Selweski
Daily Tribune Staff Writer
A day after facing hundreds of rowdy, pro-union protesters that filled the state Capitol, the Senate voted on Wednesday to grant broad new powers to emergency managers who oversee financially struggling cities and schools, including the authority to void union contracts and remove elected officials.
The controversial bills are expected to head to Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk for signature shortly, after the House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, work out some language differences.
The Senate passed the main bill in the package by a 26-12 party-line vote, drawing an immediate rebuke from union leaders across the state, who called it an assault on collective bargaining rights. In the Macomb County delegation, Republican Sens. Jack Brandenburg of Harrison Township and Tory Rocca of Sterling Heights supported the measure, while Democratic Sen. Steve Bieda of Warren was opposed.
Brandenburg said several urban areas of the state, especially Detroit, are in “bad shape” and will need a state-appointed emergency financial manager, or EMF, who can impose strong medicine.
“He has to have the backbone, he has to have the power, to null and void a contract,” Brandenburg said.
The senator also rejected claims by Democrats that the bill will destroy Michigan’s long history of local control by allowing the EMF to remove top administrators and elected officials, put millage increases on the ballot, lay off employees, slash services, and merge the city or school district with a neighboring government entity. Brandenburg said the EMFs will be deployed in communities that need “financial martial law.”
“Local control? I’ll tell you what, I think that in a lot of these places there is no control,” he said.
Snyder, a Republican, called for a substantially revised emergency manager process in January, warning that the current law doesn’t allow the state to act pro-actively, providing early intervention long before a city or school district faces financial collapse. In recent weeks, the governor has said that removing officials or altering or deleting contracts is a last resort.
In addition, an EMF can only be put in place if several preliminary steps to shore up a community’s finances fail.
An EMF would be appointed by the governor – in conjunction with the state school superintendent in the case of failing school districts. The Legislature could remove an EMF that was viewed as incompetent or overbearing.
Bieda said he’s disturbed that the Legislature is willing to put so much power in one person’s hands, someone who is not from the community and not elected by the people.
““I am very concerned for the powers this legislation would transfer to an emergency manager. Removing elected officials and overturning local ordinances shows no respect for the will or the rights of the voters. This draconian measure gives authority to an individual with no responsibility to the citizens of the community,” Bieda said in a statement.
Rocca could not be reached for comment.
The bills were approved after the Senate dealt with 29 amendments, mostly attempts by Democrats to soften the measure.
An amendment to the main bill that would have limited an EMF’s salary to the governor’s annual pay rate -- currently about $159,000 -- failed under unusual circumstances. Senators tied on a 19-19 vote, and Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Calley broke the tie with a "no" vote, drawing some boos from protesters in the Senate gallery. One protester shouted "shame on you" after Calley's vote.
The atmosphere at the Senate was much calmer than on Tuesday, when hundreds of people angered by the bills’ content crowded into the Capitol rotunda and chanted loud enough to be heard in the Senate chambers, where the proposals were being discussed before a restless crowd in the gallery.
Only Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Ecorse and the Detroit Public Schools have state-appointed emergency financial managers in place. But many more communities and schools might soon fall under the jurisdiction of the revised law. The state is training dozens of people with a background in municipal finance to certify them as a qualified EMF.
At the same time that municipalities and school districts are facing a dramatic decline in property tax revenues, state budget cuts have added to their woes and many experts say the additional deep cuts proposed by Snyder might push dozens of local governments and school districts over the edge.
Snyder has said that the state can no longer afford the level of financial assistance provided in the past, and he advised that officials at the local level must chop employee wages and benefits which are no longer affordable.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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