Earlier this month, Huffpo reported on the prospect of Detroit having an emergency financial manager. Judging by the article and some of the updates, you’d think the KKK was about to descend on Detroit. And it’s all because of Republican ‘dictatorial’ governor Rick Snyder.
For those of you who don’t know, Detroit has a corruption problem. Former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is a convicted felon after funneling state money to his wife and lying under oath in a civil trial about an affair. He also pled guilty to assaulting a police officer. He’s been ordered to pay 1 million in restitution to the city and was sentenced to further jail time when he was found to have lied about the state of his finances. Monica Conyers, former Detroit City Council member and wife of democrat Congressman John Conyers, is serving a sentence for receiving bribes from a contractor.
Those are just a couple of examples of a city besieged by corruption. Employees in the school system have also embezzled and misused funds for which former governor, Jennifer Granholm, called in EFM Robert Bobb. Bobb is black and Granholm is a democrat and oddly enough I don’t recall as much of a cry of racism when Bobb was called in, though his tactics to clean up the school system weren’t popular with school officials. Even the Detroit Public Library system thoughtlessly spent over 2 million on furniture all the while the threat of closing of some branches loomed.
With all of this going on, the city is in obvious financial straits. Mayor Dave Bing has been warning the city is near bankruptcy for months and says that without huge reform the city could run out of cash by April.
But for some, the concept that a city has to show it can be responsible with money and get rid of corrupt leaders or face the consequences isn’t reasonable. It must be racism. President of the Detroit NAACP, Rev. Wendell Anthony, compares Detroit having an EFM to going back to the plantation. And race baiter for pay, Al Sharpton, has made a predictable appearance claiming that the EFM law is racially biased and is used against cities with a predominantly black population. He and Congressman Conyers led a protest outside the home of Governor Snyder on Martin Luther King Day. Detroit’s religious leaders and other protestors showed up including members of the extreme leftist group By Any Means Necessary. The religious leaders apparently left to avoid being associated with such a radical element.
There is a lot of misinformation going around about Michigan’s Emergency Manager law. I find it ironic that the people balking the loudest about the state intervening in a financial emergency are the same type of people who think Obamacare and other big government concepts are okay. Public Act 4, the new version of this law, states:
“The legislature hereby determines that the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of this state would be materially and adversely affected by the insolvency of local governments and that the fiscal accountability of local governments is vitally necessary to the interests of the citizens of this state to assure the provision of necessary governmental services essential to public health, safety, and welfare. The legislature further determines that it is vitally necessary to protect the credit of this state and its political subdivisions and that it is necessary for the public good and it is a valid public purpose for this state to take action and to assist a local government in a condition of financial stress or financial emergency so as to remedy the stress or emergency by requiring prudent fiscal management and efficient provision of services, permitting the restructuring of contractual obligations, and prescribing the powers and duties of state and local government officials and emergency managers…”
The City of Detroit can barely take care of its own trash. It’s had enough of a loss in population that Mayor Bing has proposed moving residents closer together in order to save money on public services. Detroit’s downfall isn’t just bad for the city. It will have a far-reaching impact, especially to the suburbs. However, Detroiters do tend to forget that it’s not the only town around. Do people imagine that Governor Snyder doesn’t have enough on his plate with the rest of the state struggling as well? I have to wonder if they think he lies awake nights in his pointy white KKK hat dreaming of what he’s going to do when he finally gets his hands on Detroit.
I assume it’s the phrase “permitting the restructuring of contractual obligations” that upsets a lot of people in Detroit and cities that have already had an EFM. Mayor Bing has already stated he needed the unions to be willing to compromise to help the city. Unions never want to hear they are part of the problem. At least one union official is spreading the rumor that the law takes away the right of citizens to vote which isn’t true. This short fact sheet explains the reality.
After demonstrating incredible levels of irresponsibility and corruption, it’s only reasonable that the state step in to help the city and possibly save the state from any further losses. This already volatile situation doesn’t need race baiters coming in to preach hate. It needs someone from outside of Detroit to work with city officials in bringing the city back from the brink of the precipice of self-destruction it seems so hell-bent to run head on into which is the job of an EFM.
