Public Act 4 of 2011, “The Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act” or Emergency Manager Law has created elite bureaucrats with absolute power to remove democratically elected officials, dissolve municipalities and school districts and to unilaterally destroy public contracts. This legislation supersedes the previous policy and court decisions that provide accountability and support democracy. Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law provides unelected, local dictators with absolute power to do the following:

-              Seize and sell public assets, such as buildings or parks, without the approval of voters or local elected officials

-              Add to local debt, by putting property tax hikes on the ballot with confusing wording that hides the real cost of the tax hike

-              Lay off thousands of public workers including teachers, police and firefighters

-              Outsource jobs and services to private and out of state companies

-              Break binding contracts and eliminate collective bargaining rights at will

-              Strip elected officials of their duties without due process

-              Dissolve/merge cities, townships and school districts without a popular vote

This naked power grab by Lansing politicians that affects all Michigan residents by taking away our democracy which we have fought so hard to protect over hundreds of years. Emergency managers have used this legislation to obtain absolute power over communities and hurt them without any transparency and accountability. Emergency managers have taken over the cities of Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Pontiac, as well as Detroit Public Schools and Highland Park School District. This act has led to over 700,000 voters being stripped of their democratically elected representatives and placed under the authority of these local dictators.

February 29, our coalition of churches, community groups and labor organizations called Stand Up for Democracy, submitted 226,637 petition signatures to place Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law before a vote of the people on November 6th, 2012. Once signatures are verified this unconstitutional law is frozen until the upcoming general election and democracy would return to Michigan, and each person would again have voting rights. State politicians have stated publicly they are pursuing legislation to stop the vote of the people that could repeal Public Act 4 – the emergency manager law.

Should they succeed, not only would voters in jurisdictions under emergency manager rule be unable to elect their own representatives, but voters statewide would be prevented from petitioning their government for redress via the election process as established by the state constitution. A new emergency manager law would void the current law and deny citizens the right to vote on the issue.

Tell the Michigan Legislature Don’t Stop the Will of the People and Tamper with Public Act 4!