Nonpartisan, statewide repeal effort begins: petitions ready for signing!

A Referendum to Reject MI PA 4 - The Emergency Financial Manager

*Remember that clear standards need to be met when circulating or signing petitions, no short cuts, please follow all directions.  Petitions are being circulated county by county.  You must sign a petition in your county that is being circulated by a resident in your county.  You must be a registered voter and know your township and a full address (no PO boxes).  Petitioners are not allowed to assist people in writing out their information. Contact Marcia Curran 352-4159 or Susan Koenig 882-5722 or Jill Kimball 275-5871 (Jill will be available after 6/28/11).

The Rachel Maddow Show June 20, 2011 - Exercise Your Democratic Power To Reign In Emergency Managers ...The Democratic rights of Michigan cities and citizens are being threatened daily by the virtually absolute power given to Emergency Managers by the Michigan legislature. It is the obligation of every MI resident age 18+ to be educated and aware of the consequences that will result from their indifference...

The Governor's new "Emergency Powers"

The Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act (Public Act 4) is now in force. One important aspect of this act is that emergency managers have total control of a town's assets, and as is happening now in Benton Harbor those public assests can be sold and redeveloped to suit the manager and friends. In Benton Harbor, that would be the public beach park on Lake Michigan, which wealthy developers want transformed into a playgound for themselves and friends. It's unlikely that any locals will ever be able to afford the price of admission. To learn more about Michigan's Financial Martial Law and learn what's going on in Benton Harbor, as reported by Rachel Maddow, Click here.

The law applies to any village, township, city, school district, etc. One thing you can do right now is check out the financial health of your own community (city, village, township) and work with your elected officials to stay or get healthy (or elect new ones). If not, your community, particularly any valuable public property like beaches and parks, is up for grabs by the state.

After your local government is declared to be in a financial emergency, the Governor's appointed financial emergency manager (an individual or corporation) will be all powerful when it comes to your community assets. Your elected officials will have no power; There will be no local representation in this matter and no democracy.

Public Act 4 allows Gov. Snyder to 1) unilaterally declare a “financial emergency”, 2) disincorporate entire municipal governments, 3) dismiss elected officials with no replacement election to follow, 4) seize control of local civil services, 5) hand over taxpayer money, services, and POWERS to an individual or private, for-profit firm, and to cancel contracts, including collective bargaining. To read a fact sheet on the bill released by the Michigan state treasurer, Click here

To view the Rachel Maddow Show's earlier take on this, Click here. (YouTube)

Public Act 4 Repeal Effort Begins
According to Betsy Coffia of Antrim County, who is working on this, Public Act 4 (the financial emergency bill) does not, as previously reported, contain an appropriation that whould block a vote to repeal it. “Sen. Whitmer's assistant checked with their legal staff, called us back and said...'No appropriation,' so “we the people are free to repeal.” Coffia said that pro bono legal counsel is being sought to help with a repeal effort. “We have been combing the state for any other group already undertaking a real effort, but it appears we are the only ones who are that focused on it. We have also been highly encouraged that we can get statewide cooperation for petition drives, Coffia said in a recent email message. "Our Facebook page Referendum to Reject has exploded from just 20+ followers to over 450 supporters since Saturday, April 17. To "like and share" the new Reject Emergency Managers page on Facebook, Click here or go to the website Reject Emergency Managers

Emergency Financial Management Update

From Betsy Coffia....Hello all! Whew, such a whirlwind!!! And it keeps right on going. Beautiful, vibrant, messy gorgeous DEMOCRACY. I love it. Couple of updates:
1. Petition language for a Referendum to Repeal Public Act 4 of 2011 (the EM law) HAS BEEN FILED. It was filed at the end of April by Michigan Forward. 2. Michigan Forward is a progressive nonprofit think tank out of Detroit. Our "Reject Emergency Managers" grassroots group has been collaborating with them since our groups discovered one another the day of the rally downtown/UAW potluck two Saturdays ago.

3. A steering committee of Kevin Skarnulis, Fran Cullen, Amy Hardin, Tim Hall and myself has been working with Michigan Forward on an upcoming media blitz. 4. This is an evolving process, so I have and do appreciate all of your continued patience with us as we "grow the grassroots." Sometimes the growth is so fast it is hard to keep up with, which is a GOOD problem to have! Thanks for all EVERYONE is doing - rallying, sharing info, educating friends and neighbors, sharing with e-mail lists, talking with unions and dem/green party connections, etc. We are all taking part in a powerful "push back" against the Lansing bullies and each of our efforts is vital to the process.

5. We have begun to go "viral" with our message, including a couple of interviews I gave this weekend in Benton Harbor that are now on youtube (I start my "rant" ;) at 2:21 in the footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6dC4_r91ko). Michael Moore's website also picked them up and did a link to our www.facebook.com/rejectemergencymanagers site. 6. The Reject Emergency Managers face book page is now at over 256,000 views and our followers continue to grow in number. Statistics we can see as page administrators tell us people are regularly checking in even if they don't officially "like" us (not everyone wants their FB feed packed with our updates... which I understand!) :)

7. We are hearing from groups who have organized in Grand Rapids, Petoskey, St. Ignace and elsewhere who are prepping for a petition drive. Many rural counties are also working on this. We are also hearing from various unions that their membership is behind this and prepared to support a petition drive effort. To reach the broadest demographic, we are staying a nonpartisan effort but not turning anyone's help away! We are ALL Michiganders and all have a stake in this effort being successful.

8. We have collected hundreds of signatures from teachers at a TCAPS meeting who are willing to spend some of their summer vacation helping with a petition drive as well. 9. Michigan Forward has mapped out the needed number of signatures by region (see attached word doc) - they have an aggressive campaign of 250,000 signatures in 120 days once the petitions are available. GT County only needs 3500 to meet our "quota" in the campaign but we ALL know we can get a lot more than that to represent the northern Michigan counties! I think the down staters will be impressed with our activism; actually, I think they already are! :)

I am sure I am leaving something out, but when I said whirlwind I did mean it. It has been exhilarating to be part of and I feel incredibly positive about our chances of success in suspending and then repealing this travesty of a law. -- In Solidarity, Betsy

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After reviewing the Benton Harbor case (see link above) you might want to do something  RIGHT NOW to repeal Public Act 4. You can:

1. Register to vote! You can't repeal if you aren't a REGISTERED voter.

REGISTER TO VOTE IN MICHIGAN

2. Get everyone you know Registered to vote! (you could be creative and organize a community block party —register to vote party... go nuts!)

3. Call your U.S. Senators and Congressmen and the President—they have a Bully Pulpit and they work FOR US! Let them know you expect them to use it regarding this law.

4. Visit your Senators' offices locally. INSERT LINK TO ELECTED OFFICIALS PAGE. They have local offices. Make your presence known and felt.

5. Continue calls and letters to the editor to your local media. Give feedback on how they are (or are not) covering this crucial topic.

6. Be educated, use the FAQ and other reliable sources, and SPEAK out. Lots of misinformation is going around. We need to battle that with FACTS.

7. Stay positive... yes, doing a Repeal is a big job. Yes, it is a lot of work. But, we have already accomplished a lot! Focus on the fact that the MOMENT we get our 5% signatures accepted by the state, the law is SUSPENDED until we get to vote on it. This is a wonderful piece of encouragement as I look ahead.

Behind Michigan's "Financial Martial Law":
Corporations and Right-Wing Billionaires
By Andy Kroll
The think tank that inspired Gov. Rick Snyder's controversial bill is bankrolled by some of the same donors that funded Wisconsin's attack on unions. To read more, click here.