From Extreme Liberal:
This governor passed legislation that will give state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all — whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so. And Snyder can fire elected officials unilaterally, without any input from voters. It doesn’t get much more anti-Democratic than that.
Except it does. The governor simply has to declare a financial emergency to invoke these powers — or he can hire a private company to declare financial emergency and take over oversight of the city. That’s right, a private corporation can declare your city in a state of financial emergency and send in its Emergency Manager, fire your elected officials, and reap the benefits of the ensuing state contracts.Michigan’s new Republican governor is cutting funding to municipalities, and if they struggle financially as a consequence, he will have the power to simply take over those municipalities if he believes he should.
And once Snyder does take over these local governments, by virtue of his own whims, he can impose a local dictator — called an “Emergency Manager” — who will have the authority to undo collective bargaining agreements, scrap contracts, and even undo the results of elections.
And if that weren’t quite enough, the local dictator, at the behest of the new Republican governor or a designated corporate ally, can even “disincorporate or dissolve” an entire municipal government — effectively making a local government disappear — without any input from the public whatsoever.
The Tea Party crowd — those folks who worry about excessive government overreach and power-grabs — thinks all of this is just great.
One of the Republican state lawmakers who supports this effort characterized the plan as “financial martial law” — and as far as he’s concerned, that’s not a criticism, that’s a defense for this little scheme.
All the stories are the same with these extremist governors. They ran as moderate republicans promising to put states on a fiscal path to recovery but what we're seeing is dictatorships destroying the middle class while handing the states over to multi-millionaires from Wall Street!
Look at Snyder's budget... This fraud is going after ordinary citizens pensions. He wants to tax these pensions, some are only $20,000 a year, and give the money to businesses by cutting corporate income taxes by 81%! In order to do this thievery he has to increase taxes on the poor, elderly and middle class by 36%! See the pattern? These evil-doers(yes I said it!) CLAIM their states are broke yet they DO NOT propose raising corporate taxes, which would remedy their "situations".
As David Sirota noted in a recent column, cities and states can never really go bankrupt as they always retain the ability to raise revenue by increasing taxes. By eschewing any discussion of this as an option, Snyder and his like attempt to disappear the concept from the publics mind, instead focusing on budget cuts as the only possible source of income for the state.
I didn't think anyone could be worse than Scott Walker, but Rick Snyder has surpassed Walker on the evil radar...
Snyder has said repeatedly that his budget plan represents "shared sacrifice" and puts Michigan on the path to a better future because it helps to solve the fiscal woes of the state, which is facing an estimated $1.4 billion shortfall. His $45.9 billion proposal includes spending cuts for schools and would eliminate many personal tax breaks while slashing business taxes. Among the proposals: ending exemptions from the
The governor reiterated Monday that his overall budget proposal, while containing some "difficult cuts," is necessary.
"Those are tough calls," he said. "But I'm making those decisions on the basis of what's good for all of us in the long run so we can all win together."
Look at the budget cuts, look who they hurt, look how these thugs refuse to raise taxes on the rich to balance their budgets but have no problem whatsoever raising taxes on poor and middle class! How can conservatives in their right minds turn a blind eye to this activity?? Rick Snyder is a liar, a fraud, a scumbag rethuglican and I believe the good people of Michigan will prevail in their recall efforts, just like Wisconsin!
