Monday, May 23, 2011

Emergency Bill passed in Michigan

This article argues the necessity of the Emergency Manager Bill, how "the fact we need this legislation is disturbing to contemplate but, unfortunately, we do need it." What are your thoughts about this perspective? Would you chose a different approach of financially assisting cities? We will discuss this in class Tuesday and argue the points. Just wanted you guys to get a head start on all the arguments presented!

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/03/editorial_unfortunately_michig.html

5 comments:

  1. The Emergency Manager Bill is a last resort, it is not meant be the norm. Stop thinking about how "unfair it is" rather "what is best for my community, bankruptcy or something else?" If you have a better solution, I'm sure Snyder'd love to hear it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed, we're ignoring that fairness and listening to the average public's solutions led to massive financial failure. Professionals deal with money issues like this for their living- would you rather hire someone to build your house by popular vote or by who has the best training and record?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Last resort or not, it shouldn't be there! That's just giving them an opportunity to expand their powers at a certain time. Once the situation kicks in, then what? This bill gives them broad powers, and they could take advantage of this by also being in other affairs. I care about my community, and I would rather listen to the leader of my community than some guy from no where.

    Also, in my opinion, people will never understand this because some of them are not considered to be community members.

    Another thing that pisses me off is that some people are attacking the people and saying that it's their fault. The reasons that we are in the financial mess are due to the officials and the government. They never listened to the people. We have a say too, and if they had let us participate, then we might not be in this mess.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The financial crisis is a two way street. Yea public officials may not have done the best job of management, but there are many other people implicated in this situation. Whirlpool, for example, who just got rid of 1,100 full time jobs by relocating one of their plants to Mexico.

    (http://michiganmessenger.com/35084/whirlpool-to-outsource-refrigerator-manufacturing-to-mexico)

    I agree that there is something to be said for professionals coming in to remedy the situation, but just because they are a professional in the financial field does not make them infallible.

    We are giving them too much power, without (to my understanding) much ability for recourse if public (or contradicting professional) opinion disagrees with their measures.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "In the face of such extremity, citizens should be worried about collective bargaining? And what, in that situation, could then be bargained for? The fixtures before someone turns the lights off? What percent of zero equals something?"
    I think these lines pretty much say it all.YES it is unfair that something as democratic as collective bargaining would be lost.But if the entire city becomes insolvent and fails to function then it wouldn't be able to provide any services to its residents and give them any jobs.If there aren't any jobs what would the unions bargain for ?. With Michigan's financial situation a CHANGE is needed and this comes in the form of a financial manager.

    ReplyDelete