Where Are the Wingnuts

[prole]

...always saying they'll pick up their arms against tyranny in defense of democracy? Oh that's right, they're Republicans.

 

Michigan Bill Would Impose "Financial Martial Law"

CBS News 3/11/11

 

Michigan lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would enable the governor to appoint "emergency managers" -- officials with unilateral power to make sweeping changes to cities facing financial troubles.

 

Under the legislation, the Michigan Messenger reports, the governor could declare a "financial emergency" in towns or school districts. He could then appoint a manager to fire local elected officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services - and even eliminate whole cities or school districts without any public input.

 

The measure passed in the state Senate this week; the House passed its own version earlier. The two versions of the bill are expected to be reconciled next week, and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has said he will sign the bill the bill into law.

 

Democrats and their allies are decrying the legislation as a power grab and say it's part of a wider effort taking place in several states, such as Wisconsin, to weaken labor unions.

 

"It takes every decision in a city or school district and puts it in the hands of the manager, from when the streets get plowed to who plows them and how much they are paid," said Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan State AFL-CIO. "This is a takeover by the right wing and it's an assault on democracy like I've never seen."

 

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat who represents Detroit, said in a statement that in a given city, the governor's new "financial czar" could "force a municipality into bankruptcy, a power that will surely be used to extract further concessions from hardworking public sector workers."

 

He said the legislation raises "serious constitutional concerns." On top of that, he said, allowing an "emergency manager" to dissolve locally elected bodies "implicitly targets minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, without providing meaningful support for improved economic opportunity."

 

Republican state Sen. Jack Brandenburg said several urban areas of the state, especially Detroit, are in "bad shape" and require "financial martial law," the Daily Tribune reports.

 

The emergency manager, he said, "has to have the backbone, he has to have the power, to null and void a contract." In response to concerns that local leaders will have to cede control, Brandenburg said, "I'll tell you what, I think that in a lot of these places there is no control."

 

An emergency manager would only be put in place if several other steps to save a city's finances failed, and Snyder has said in recent weeks that removing elected officials or breaking contracts would be a last resort for an emergency manager. In addition, the legislature would have the power to remove an emergency manager.

 

As the "emergency manager" bill nears final passage, state lawmakers are also considering Snyder's proposed budget, which would cut spending on schools, universities, prisons and communities, according to the Detroit Free Press.

 

Snyder has also proposed eliminating $1.7 billion in tax breaks for individuals while cutting $1.8 billion in taxes for businesses to spur job growth. Much of the $1.7 billion in new tax revenue would be "coming from retirees, senior citizens and the working poor," the Free Press wrote in an editorial.

[j_b]

Democracy and contracts are only worth upholding when they benefit the wealthy and corporations. Major "structural" reforms have to be done to save us from what they are already doing to us LOLZ

[JayB]

I have no objection to letting them go bankrupt and having the courts make the cuts via the bankruptcy process. Bills that can't be paid, won't be paid.

 

 

[j_b]

Naw, we will cut your war budget first.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Naw, we will cut your war budget first.

 

"his" war budget?

 

STFU, you troll.

[j_b]

Well, silence is consent, which makes it his war budget, and his tax breaks to the wealthy, etc ... Anyway it's entirely consistent with his war-mongering and his cheering on of Bush policies. You are in the same boat btw, which probably explains your reaction.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Well, silence is consent, which makes it his war budget, and his tax breaks to the wealthy, etc ... Anyway it's entirely consistent with his war-mongering and his cheering on of Bush policies. You are in the same boat btw, which probably explains your reaction.

 

Have you ever met Jay? Thought not.

 

FOAD.

[j_b]

I don't need to meet him to know what he said and what he didn't say on this internet board for the better part of the last decade. His rhetoric places him 100% in the corporate shill/warmonger territory despite what you and he like to think of his posturing.

[j_b]

Anyway, none of this silly side-show is going to obfuscate that despite all of your and Jay's pablum about liberty and democracy, you are once again unable to speak a word against another blatant power grab by the hard right (read about the "financial martial law" in the original post). It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone since it is quite obvious that you agree with most everything the plutocrat-financed tea-baggers are doing.

[prole]

 

"Bye Democracy, come back soon! Whoo, that was fun... Wait, it is coming back, right?"

 

[AlpineK]

j_b vs Jay.

 

Congratulations you both are on the way to receiving the Golden Wingnut award.

 

[j_b]

Although, I imagine that Shackleton wasn't much of a democrat

 

[video:youtube]W8CVRUIBFWM

[j_b]

j_b vs Jay.

 

Congratulations you both are on the way to receiving the Golden Wingnut award.

 

Actually, 'wing-nut' is a descriptive usually applied to conservatives. Thus, I cannot accept this and you'll have to find some other award for me. Come on, you can do better.

[AlpineK]

A wingnut has two wings. You could describe the wings as the right and left wing. Obviously you don't like your other half.

 

[ivan]

screw-job?

 

nut-case?

 

[tvashtarkatena]

Two wings but never flies.

[prole]

I have no objection to letting them go bankrupt and having the courts make the cuts via the bankruptcy process. Bills that can't be paid, won't be paid.

 

Courts or autocrats, Jay never met a dictatorial power in the service of capital he didn't like.

[j_b]

aha! That's just it, without the 2 wings, you don't have a wingnut and you wouldn't go about calling a full-fledged wingnut, half-a-wingnut, now would you?

 

You are right that I don't particularly like social darwinist, especially the militant kind.

[glassgowkiss]

I think taking away freedom and rights in the name of liberty (or balanced budget) is the same ballpark as waging war to promote pace. Didn't really work all that great in the soviets. hence i am not hesitant to say republican party= communist party at the moment.

[prole]

 

It's all good.

 

[j_b]

How long till the 'wingnuts for liberty' start crying for the National Guard to do something about this kind of protest

[JayB]

Wingnuts aplenty at every level of government these days, it seems....

 

 

"

San Jose mayor targets pensions in budget

 

 

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said Friday the city cannot afford to pare its work force any further to close chronic budget deficits.

 

But with a 10th straight year of red ink raising the specter of massive cuts to everything from police to libraries, avoiding more layoffs will require hefty reductions to current and future employee pensions and perks, Reed said in budget recommendations released Friday.

 

The City Council will consider the recommendations Tuesday and vote on them the following week.

 

"It is a big sell," Reed acknowledged. "The level of service we have today is the minimum. We've cut and cut and cut for nine years, and we have to do things to preserve services to the community, and there aren't other ways to do it."

 

The council can modify Reed's recommendations, which provide policy guidance to the city manager. The council must adopt a final budget by June for the budget year starting July 1.

 

Councilwoman Rose Herrera, who represents the Evergreen District in East San Jose and is considered a moderate swing vote, said Reed's proposal "sets the right tone in terms of our goal to right-size the organization so we can return to our focus on providing services to our community."

 

Upon taking office in 2007, Reed vowed to end the city's chronic budget deficits, driven chiefly by employee costs outpacing revenues. Since 2000, revenues grew 22 percent while employee costs rose 77 percent and staffing fell 17 percent. But

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employee unions have fought his calls for concessions, even after a national recession worsened the city's financial woes.

 

For much of the last decade, the city patched deficits by eliminating vacant positions of employees who retired or resigned and cobbling together temporary funding in hope that an economic recovery would deliver more tax revenues. But the economic downturn that began in 2008 has eaten into revenues, and the city has fewer jobs to cut.

 

Last year, when a record $118.5 million deficit threatened layoffs and budget shortfalls loomed far into the future, a half-dozen city unions grudgingly accepted the city's demand to reduce their pay and benefits 10 percent, a level matched by the council and top officials.

 

The city imposed 5 percent cuts on one small union, and police agreed to 4 percent reductions to save 70 officers from layoffs. Firefighters couldn't reach agreement on concessions with the city, and 49 were laid off. Two other unions still under contract continued receiving raises. Still, the city cut 800 jobs and demoted or laid off more than 150 employees.

 

This year, the deficit has climbed to $105.4 million, driven chiefly by pension costs that are projected to grow from $156 million to $256 million next year and top $400 million in four years.

 

Next year's deficit doesn't include $23 million that temporarily maintained several police, fire, library and community center programs through June. It also doesn't include a possible $10 million in additional costs from the city's struggling redevelopment agency. The agency has seen its revenues plummet in the economic downturn, and Gov. Jerry Brown wants to end redevelopment statewide.

 

Several unions have stepped forward with offers to accept the 10 percent cuts city leaders had called for last year to ease the ongoing budget woes, most notably firefighters, who reached a tentative agreement with the city that will be voted on March 22.

 

But Reed noted that the worsening budget picture means employees will have to give up much more to avoid further layoffs. The 10 percent cuts would save only $38 million. About 480 jobs would have to be axed to cover the balance.

 

Reed said the city already is thinly staffed and can't afford to lose more employees. The city, he added, can't afford to keep "fiddling around the edges" of the pension reforms he's sought.

 

Reed said employees need to reduce pensions not only for future hires but existing workers, including raising retirement ages, reducing automatic pension increases and bonus checks. Eliminating other perks like a provision that pays retiring workers for unused sick leave can also save millions of dollars, he said...."

 

Guess Chuck Reed's party affiliation...

[j_b]

It's particularly bad form to claim that the fiscal crisis created by your anti-tax/anti-regulation/laissez faire policies is proof that paying people even less is necessary all the meanwhile economic inequalities have grown to be similar to that of the age of robber barons.

 

Slice of life for the middle class in Ohio

Edited March 16, 2011 by j_b

[Jim]

Ok, I'll ask the obvious question. What is a municipality to do, seriously? Practical solutions please - less on the lectures about the corporate elite. I don't see there is much room to move - taxes ain't going up.

 

-----Since 2000, revenues grew 22 percent while employee costs rose 77 percent and staffing fell 17 percent.------------

[j_b]

There is no solution beside raising revenue from those who don't pay their fair share in taxes.