The New & Not-Improved Emergency Financial Management bill HB 4214

Why Synder's Emergency Financial Management (EFM) plan is bad?  If a city is broke, don't we need a plan to get the finances in order?

There is already a law that allows emergency financial takeover. It was enacted by legislature during Blanchard years. It does not go to the extreme that this bill does.  There are already bankruptcy laws that cover public entities.

This bill removes ELECTED officials from decision-making entirely -- essentially firing them and canceling YOUR vote.

Remember, this bill will come AFTER his new budget has stripped considerable shared revenue funding to schools, counties, townships & cities. Essentially, he will undermine their past budgeting, during the worst economy in decades and then come in and take them over when they struggle.

The bill does not restrict the salary of the company exec they hire to take over nor restrict bringing in out-of-state management.  The GOP refuses such an amendment.

This bill does not include a requirement that would ensure public hearings where citizens would be given information about alternatives and about the Governor's hired executive or company before the take-over & press could get updates monthly. The amendment was introduced and refused by the GOP.

This bill does not include a experience or a degree in education for the executive or company taking over a school district. The amendment was introduced and refused by the GOP.

It's Union-Busting and democracy-eroding. Starting at Section 19 page 26 (link below), this bill gives the power to the Governor through a private corporate representative (or is that in reverse?) to break contracts with employee unions. These are legally bargained or arbitrated contracts! There's a big desire to break unions, lower wages and make it impossible for people to support the alternative to the GOP & Chamber of Commerce -- the Democratic Party.

 Why this law right now?

Answer A. The GOP is looking for easy answers -- trying to blame the locals because there is no money to operate, INSTEAD of spending their time attracting jobs and giving lobbyists tax breaks.

Answer B. This appears to be a nationally coordinated effort. It appears in addition to the above answer, it is also being introduced now because their corporate donors, including out-of-state and multinational corporate masters, have told them to break local governments and to break unions of workers.

Answer C. We gave them encouragement on the 2010 election. The average Republican voter did not read between the lines when they put these people in office. They failed to do the homework on where these legislators' loyalties really were, what their ultimate goals were. Democrats, liberals and moderates failed to mobilize and educate voters.

Read HB 4214.
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billengrossed/House/pdf/2011-HEBS-4214.pdf 

Photo credit: Mitchell Rivard tweet of the Michigan Capitol rally 3/15/2011

What's a 425 Agreement? Dewitt Airport contract

Dewitt Township trustees have decided they want to sign a 425 agreement with the Lansing and the Capital Airport. Unfortunately, 425 agreements have typically benefitted a few at the expense of the many by shifting development from urban areas into greenspaces. Seldom do the more rural township taxpayers benefit since 425 agreements usually lead to increased costs in public services to the area that are spread across all taxpayers.

There are many risks to a 425 agreement for local residents. It's important for voters in both Lansing and Dewitt Township and everyone who will live, work, or drive-through the area to push their government representatives to plan this move very, very carefully.

Some History on Clinton County & the Airport

Although it resides in Clinton County, Republican Commissioners have been loath to pay the fees to belong to the Airport planning & oversight governance -- the Capital Area Airport Authority. It's an example of penny-wise and pound-foolish. In 2009, the County Commissioners also approved an addition of a trash incinerator for international waste which of course, follows the northeasterly winds across Clinton County homes, business, and schools.

It would be great if the 425 agreement would give more protections for Dewitt Township residents, but that isn't realistic. There will still be no County or Dewitt Twp representative or voting member on the Capital Airport Authority. 

Based on Dewitt Township Trustees's voting record, there is no reason to believe they will suddenly begin to protect citizens and future residents from known hazardous airport activities. These trustees will likely continue to listen to pretty words about the magic of increasing air pollution and urban sprawl to solve our job problems. Later, taxpayers have to pick up the tab. Voters must push trustees to be much more careful than they have been in the past when signing agreements with developers.

What is a 425 Agreement?

Michigan Public Act 425 allows small local governments to make "Agreements" to share costs and tax revenues from new or expanding development in an area that sits near their borders.

Although 425s can in theory be used to reduce urban abandonment and wanton urban sprawl & traffic congestion into green spaces, they have not been shown to do so.

This agreement looks like it follows the pattern of seeking cheap quick-fix of building out instead of  investing in the maintenance of existing infrastructure. The long-term costs will be carried by our children and not by the Trustees or developers.

Most of the problems from 425s arise because initial agreements and space plans are not well-thought out. Other 425 problems are because the agreements are not enforced. Residents on both sides of the agreement must take a hard look at the exact language used in the proposed agreements to see if added costs for transportation, water run-off/sewage, traffic & other enforcement, fire protection, etc. are either fully-carried by the developers (very, very doubtful) or carried by Lansing or by Clinton County or shared. We'd need to look at the public health impacts, traffic studies, and regional economic impact studies to get a clearer picture.

What's an Aerotropolis?
 
Part of what the Trustees are pushing is the concept of an "aerotroplis."  This is similar to a metropolis. Like initial cities that were started along waterways, then sprawled along railroads, then along highways as they were built. The aerotropolis is urban sprawl around an airport.

The pretty idea is that it will attract airport-related industry such as shipping and business travelers and thus lead to new hotels and restaurants and convention centers to serve those travelers and companies. The whole truth is that in Lansing, we have hotels and a conference center and restaurants that are often empty, struggling to get customers in an economy that is increasingly based on telecommunications rather than physical travel. Investing in a new aerotropolis city is risky. We need evidence that Lansing airport will attract visitors and responsible businesses. There's a strong likelihood that those new developments will sit empty or they will serve as a big, heavy ax to current area business owners. In those cases, there is not a net gain and indeed it risks tax dollars.

Are our government officials using sound assumptions for their decisions?

Voters should ask their officials to explain their assumptions and then ask for evidence supporting those assumptions. Possible questions include:

• Is there an assumption of future population growth regionally that could support such an expansion now? Some demographers would disagree.
• Is there an assumption of increased airport travel? Is there evidence that this is new visitors to Lansing? Or is this more travel by locals (flying out for business or family travel) who would not increase net sales in the region at all?
• Is there an assumption/threat that otherwise this area will be annexed? Is this real or threatened? If real, what would be the net loss to residents?
• Is this aerotropolis concept being driven primarily by developers? If so, what tax abatements are they requesting? Historically, Clinton County taxpayers and municipalities have not faired well with tax abatements.
• What systems have been developed to accurately track receipts/payments and ensure proper revenue-sharing between the parties? This is often overlooked by local officials with little experience in negotiating complex, long-term contracts.
• Is this there real evidence that there will be a long-term, net positive result or is this more wishful thinking?

As those of us in Bath and from other parts of the state can verify, 425 agreements are a big deal with long-lasting effects. They are not magic bullets. If a 425 is beneficial, then the next step is to guarantee it is written to prevent pitfalls to residents.

Ref/Resources:
Dewitt Township http://www.dewitttownship.org/Home/tabid/2074/mid/4137/newsid4137/495/Default.aspx
http://www.dewitttownship.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=N3KOVD2RYkQ%3d&tabid=2074
http://www.ced.msu.edu/reports/Briefs%20-%2005f%20-%203%20-%20PQ.pdf
http://ippsr.msu.edu/Publications/ARPA425.pdf

All for one and... well, all for Gov. Snyder's budget guy Nixon

How annoying is this -- Being asked to take one for the team; then finding out the "team" means the top .05% of Governor Snyder's executives.

Snyder gave John Nixon a double in salary when he hired him from Utah where he was doing same high level budgeting ($124,200 to $280,000 annually). Now consider the excuses for this deal when Michigan's budget is supposed to be so awful.

Republican  Excuses	And why they are so blatantly lame.
"He's taking over 2 jobs that paid combined $250,000, so its a savings."	Really, paying a man DOUBLE  his old salary is a SAVINGS? If that's the best deal Snyder could make, please keep the him away from any vendor contract negotiations? WHY NOT GIVE OTHER STATE EMPLOYEES PAY RAISE FOR INCREASED WORKLOADS? Following this logic, when we cut all the State employee jobs (you know, the actual workers/doers), Gov. Snyder should follow-up with a big raise for doubling their responsibilities and workload -- perhaps double their annual salary where workload has doubled -- ESPECIALLY after several years of wage & benefit concessions.  When we doubled the child abuse & a caseloads, doubled the fire inspections, doubled the welfare fraud cases, asked them to maintain the same rate of drunk driving arrests with half the officers, to handle the same number of foster care payment reimbursements with half staff, etc.; did we double their pay? Surely Snyder plans to at least increased their pay to keep up with inflation? NO?! Republicans did not think it was sufficient for Governor Granholm to cut our public service employees pay through unpaid furlow days, removing cost-of-living increases to keep up with inflation, and increased their medical copayments and deductibles. Their sacrifice will continue to go unappreciated by those at the top and by those served because of their jealousy of anyone with a decent job.   This man is not going to be doing double the work. We are getting HALF the work FOR EACH DEPARTMENT, but PAYING FULL dollar for each position. Organizational development, employee productivity, and quality control experts now agree that "doing more with less" is a myth. One  man can only be one place at a time, doing one thing at a time. His work will either go undone, including reviewing the validity of budget research, monitoring the details of budget proposals, maintaining efficiency of information systems, etc -- or his work will be pawned off to underlings who did not get a raise and also will be unable to handle extra duties. Holding the top positions is an impending conflict of interest. Budget Director AND Director of Technology, Management, and Budget may mix a little too well -- as in no objectivity or view to front-line services to the people through the Attorney General, Secretary of State, Natural Resources & Public Health. As one commentator  asked, "Which department do you think is going to be taken care of during his administration?" Certainly not DHS!
"Quality costs money."	This makes zero sense on many levels. If the guy is such great quality, why was he getting half that in Utah, a place in much better financial position to pay a nice big salary? Who else of similar caliber was considered and what was their salary expectation? The truth is either this logic is a big lie/excuse to make sure his buddies live high-on-the-hog while the rest of us "sacrifice" or if valid, then it follows that other civil servants will get raises.  Following this Republican logic, shouldn't we increase the pay to the DHS Director, or even better -- to our public servants? Don't we also want quality child protection workers, law enforcement, corrections workers, nursing home inspectors, bank auditors, welfare fraud investigators, consumer protection staff, ...and direct line supervisors? The longevity of workers in some State positions in some locations is only 3 years -- They quit because the pay isn't worth the long hours, intense responsibility, poor training, lack of career mobility, and from stress from customers & clients who have no one else to complain to about continuously reduced services. The good ones leave. Given the examples of how corrupting it is to have government employees making subpar wages (think Mexico & Russia), you'd think there'd be an investment in those positions, as well. Here lies the difference in the Party philosophies and loyalties. It's great to talk with the little guys, get them riled up & hatin' that big bad government-thingy, but the sad truth is they do not value the working stiff. If they did, they'd put their money where their mouth was. No, in Michigan, government employees already earn more than many Right-to-Work-for-Less states in the south. As we are constantly told by the corporate mouthpiece party, line staff grunts don't deserve middle class wages -- even if most are committed college graduates with families; even if first-line workers' salaries stay in Michigan (while the 6 figure guys spend theirs on luxuries & international stock funds); even though workers' pay taxes back into Michigan's coffers because they don't get tax write-offs for items like trips & phones. No, we don't have money to  pay our government workers more because of the bad international, national, and state economy...but we do have enough to increase the salary of our executives.

The only person who took a pay cut was Maura Corrigan, new Director of  the Dept. of Human Services -- and her constituents are mostly children, disabled, and elderly who don't vote.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110114/NEWS04/101140338/Michigan-budget-director-doubles-his-salary-in-taking-job-with-state