Snyder: Our Own Scott Walker?

Walker (0.00 / 0)

Snyder may be a lot of things, but Scott Walker he's not.  That's a special kind of stupid douchebaggery, right there, though, I will concede that the results may largely be the same (with some key and important differences, though).

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by: MiddleGrandGuy @ Mon Feb 21, 2011 at 03:01:31 AM UTC

Snyder may not be Scott Walker (0.00 / 0)

But there are plenty of Republicans in our state House and Senate who are cut from the same cloth as their Wisconsin Republican counterparts.

And they are salivating at the prospect of tearing into Democratic constituent groups. As posted elsewhere, at least one bill that eats into collective bargaining rights has already been introduced in the Michigan House.

What's worse is that (unlike Wisconsin, where a quirk in the Quorum rules allowed Democrats to block the legislation)our Democratic House and Senate members are pretty much powerless to stop them. Our 12 Senators will be lucky if they even get to be in the same room as dominant Republicans when they craft legislation.

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by: helzapoppn @ Mon Feb 21, 2011 at 14:38:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Don't forget the "other shoe" (0.00 / 0)

The likelihood for sweeping changes to laws governing Emergency Financial Managers.

Once Gov. Snyder and the Republican-controlled Legislature impose their austerity measures, school districts and municipalities will try cutting, try millages, try to merge services as Snyder demands -- perhaps in an effort to win some of the "grant" money that will be made available in place of lost revenue sharing.

There's a bit of a Thunderdome aspect to the competitive "grants" -- since we don't really know how winners will be chosen, we're likely to see "reforms" at the local level that exceed what's coming out of Lansing, as local units fight each other to show they're "worthy" of the state handout.

But in any event, there will be hundreds of school districts, towns and cities that fail (as "failure" gets redefined)...and these will get the "other shoe" as the Legislature imposes an EFM on them.

EFMs under the proposed changes will have powers that dwarf what Robert Bobb has in the Detroit Public Schools. A new-era EFM can potentially void contracts, decertify collective bargaining agreements, privatize services, eliminate departments, issue mass layoffs, sell assets and control academic curriculums -- all with reduced oversight or rights to appeal.

Even worse, since one of the triggers for assigning an EFM is a simple majority vote of the Legislature, we could see Democrats at the local level targeted for merely being Democrats. Or the losers in municipal or school board races becoming EFMs over the winners -- in effect subverting election results.

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by: helzapoppn @ Mon Feb 21, 2011 at 14:56:03 PM UTC