if you beg for public money, the piper calls the tune...
Posted on 04/16/2011 1:55:21 AM PDT by tcrlaf
The Emergency Financial Manager of the city of Benton Harbor has issued an order striping all city boards and commissions of all their authority to take any action.
The order, signed Thursday, limits the actions available to such bodies to calling a meeting to order, approving the minutes of meetings and adjourning a meeting. The bodies are prohibited under the act from taking any other action without the express authority of the Emergency Financial Manager, Joseph Harris.
Actions such as Harris’ are explicitly allowed under a newly approved law which granted sweeping new powers to emergency financial managers. That legislation had drawn large protests, including attempts by some protesters to take over the state capitol building. The sit-in resulted in numerous arrests.
Harris’ move comes as Detroit Public Schools’ emergency financial manager Robert Bobb announced that he would use powers granted to him under the act to change union contracts.
(Excerpt) Read more at michiganmessenger.com ...
Benton Harbor for those that don't know, is a crime and corruption ridden mini-Detroit, on lake Michigan, that's 94% African-American. It's a city of 11,000, that has been Democrat-run for Decades. The town budget has a $4 million dollar deficit THIS YEAR, and they are over $17 million dollars in debt.
They are begging the state for cash to cover $100,000+ (!!!!!) in bank over-draft fees on bounced checks they wrote knowing they didn't have the money to cover, and to meet payroll.
This, and Detroit Schools are the first uses of Emergency Managers to take over finances, and getting them back in to order.
And the left is going absolutely INSANE over this, calling it RACIST, an end to Democracy, fascism, etc.etc.
Yes, all of that about Benton Harbor’s budget is true. But is the answer for a larger central government to send a bureaucrat, disband the elected local government that, for good or bad, represents the people of the area, and impose their will?
I thought we just had a party about the issue of large central governments telling smaller, regional ones how to conduct their business. Something about tea, I think it was...?
PS: Countdown until Washington catches on to this idea and decides that southern, mid-western and south-western states are “poorly managed” and in desperate need of someone to suspend their local governments and show them how they ought to be run.
This is the state’s equivalent of a bankruptcy process, that they didn’t have before Snyder signed the law.
If a mess like this went to BK court, do you think a judge would put up with these shenanigans?
I'd call it a sign of things to come.
If it is the case that cities need a bankruptcy process, I suggest they allow the private parties who are owed money by the city to initiate bankruptcy proceedings and force the city to sell assets and stop services to raise revenues to provide for the payment of debts.
If a mess like this went before a BK judge, would he put up with it? Probably not. That’s why it is better suited to go in front of him. And in the future, knowing they are subject to collections the same as all other legal entities in this country, I suspect city officials will behave differently in the future.
What the answer is NOT is to establish one level of government as being unilaterally above another, with the power to step in and take charge, no matter what the circumstances or the potential perceived outcomes. This is simply a legal space that democracy cannot afford to have explored. The precedent of establishing a pecking order with enforcement powers between levels of government is dangerous to the extreme.
1. Reform the government to restore order.
or
2. Appoint a strongman, a dictator to restore order.
Since the people of Benton Harbor proved they are not capable of self government at this time, option 2. is necessary until they are given another chance at option 1.
And who decides “civil society breaking down”?
Who decides who is “not capable of self government”?
Is it you? Is it me? Is it Barack Obama?
I believe in institutions, and I believe in the rule of law. This false choice you present slaps both in the face. We have institutions and laws in place to allow the collection of debts by negligent entities. The only thing that has changed of late is we have learned cities and states cannot be put above the law. When they are, they will behave like legally immune diplomats - like petulant children.
Yeah, it is time to restore order in Benton Harbor. Through a series of legal processes that maintain the sovereignty of local governments and preserve our sacred tradition of private parties using neutral 3rd party adjudicators to reach a satisfactory resolution of debts.
I will never use a single breath God has given me to argue for a dictator on American soil. Never, ever, anywhere, under any circumstances. It is an insult to our traditions, to our founding history, and to our cherished institutions. And as if that is not enough, the consequences tomorrow are far too grave.
Sell the heroin and pay the bills.
Excellent point and I have no arguments against the spirit of your post.
The rule of law has changed since the powers that be changed the rules.
What are debts anymore? If you a private member of the Federal Reserve or one of their friends you have no debts. They make them go away by taxing us and our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren.
We no longer live in country of laws.
Time for a reset.
If you don't know what the breakdown of society looks like, visit Detroit or Benton Harbor.
No false choice. It is a fact that most peoples are not always, if ever capable of self government.
Sorry, dictators have been used from time to time since the Roman Republic to the summer of 1781 in Virginia. The trick is for otherwise freedom loving people to step back once the emergency is dealt with.
Our country has the institutions you speak of, yet we are slipping into despotic government. We will continue the slide as long as the people wish to do so. Simple.
Who or what is a “BK” court?
I believe it is Bankruptcy Court...
Yep, the only two options are a republic or a dictatorship.
I do pity black Democrats. They’ve been tricked, trained and turned away from the party that freed them by the repackaged slavery party.
The sad part of it is Snyder will get away with it, no one sees how and why...
General Motors.
All Contract Law was thrown out the window with GM, Oboingo set a new precedent, Snyder is just following this new precedent... Think about it....
if you beg for public money, the piper calls the tune...
Too bad Dan Rostenkowski's gone to that post office in the sky. He could have taught them a thing or two about creative ways of raising money...
Yes, what has been done to blacks is criminal.
I grew up in Berrien County. I saw a news crawl on CNN YEARS ago that stated EIGHTY-PERCENT of the total population of the Benton Harbor area was on some sort of “financial gov’t assistance”.
It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve been back there, but it sounds like not a lot has changed with the demographics or the politics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.