News Analysis
The legislation is part of a series of similar moves, beginning in Wisconsin, and affecting at least 16 state governments. Influential voices on the left are crying foul and warning the public to remain vigilant about what they call anti-democratic actions sweeping the country under the pretext of fiscal crises.
“If this bill passes (there is) the possibility of the privatization of a whole town by fiat,” warned journalist and author Naomi Klein, in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now’s program, “The War and Peace Report.”
“This is an assault on democracy, a frontal assault on democracy. It is a kind of corporate coup d’etat at the municipal level,” she said.
The legislation, which has passed both the House and Senate, gives Gov. Rick Snyder the authority to privatize large sectors of the state, justifying the takeover as necessary to correct “financial stress.”
The House version of the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act would “require the governor to declare the local government in receivership and appoint an emergency manager, upon confirmation of a financial emergency.”
The emergency manager could then modify, terminate, or renegotiate contracts and collective bargaining agreements for school districts, and disincorporate or dissolve the municipal government with the approval of the governor.
The Michigan legislation, which passed the Senate on Tuesday, happens to coincide with the public release of the controversial Ohio state budget.
Republican Gov. John Kasich’s budget introduces sweeping reforms to health, education, and public construction worker pay, along with billions in spending cuts.
In a separate bill currently before the Senate, Gov. Kasich has indicated his support for a reduction in collective bargaining rights for unions.
Across the nation, arguments made by elected officials to justify sweeping spending cuts, say that everyone needs to make shared sacrifices.
Based on this understanding, administrators and recipients of government supported programs are all questioning whether cuts to their programs and interests are really fair, and whether large business owners and shareholders are putting in their fair share.
AFL-CIO Ohio President Tim Burga wrote in a statement after the release of Gov. Kasich’s budget: “Not surprisingly, instead of looking at solutions of shared sacrifice, Gov. Kasich would rather balance the budget on the backs of Ohioans who struggle everyday to make ends meet.”
Union Power Thwarted
The state of Wisconsin is where the wave of Republican sea changes began, with Gov. Scott Walker’s now-famous move to end collective bargaining rights for public union employees, while justifying his actions as required to reduce the deficit.
Influential, Nobel Prize-winning New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, wrote in a recent column, “Wisconsin Power Play.” that his actions in Wisconsin are not about “the state budget, despite Mr. Walker’s pretense that he’s just trying to be fiscally responsible. It is, instead, about power.”
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