In my ongoing effort to highlight the real differences between Democratic Candidates and Republicans -- Mark Schauer who is running to unseat Rick Snyder -- makes a great case in point:
Mark Schauer would end Michigan’s Emergency Manager system
by Ned Resnikoff, msnbc.com -- 07/21/14
DETROIT - By any objective measure, the state of Michigan has been economically transformed under the tenure of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. City agencies and entire school districts have been outsourced or privatized; public employees have been laid off in droves; municipalities have sold off vast swaths of public land; and city employee unions have seen their contracts whittled down to nothing. All of this was accomplished in the space of three and a half years. Michigan’s Emergency Manager system is what made it possible.
Under Public Act 4, which Gov. Snyder approved shortly after taking office in 2011, the state has the authority to place cash-strapped cities and school districts under the stewardship of Emergency Managers (EMs). A city’s EM has the power of the mayor and the city council combined, and then some; they’re even allowed to unilaterally rewrite public union contracts. Essentially, placing a city under emergency management suspends the powers of its elected officials and invests all that authority in a single, un-elected figure. The system has been described as “financial martial law,” and it is the force behind Detroit’s recent bankruptcy negotiations, pension cuts and water shutoffs.
Now Snyder’s Democratic challenger, former congressman Mark Schauer, is promising to undo the EM system. Speaking on Saturday at the liberal conference Netroots Nation in Detroit, Mich., Schauer said that he planned on “restoring democracy” in Detroit if elected governor. In an interview with msnbc, he explained that he intended to scrap the EM law entirely.
[...]
Republicans would dismantle your cities; Democrats would fight to restore them.
So how extensive has the Republican "Fire Sale" of Michigan's economically-strapped cities been?
I give you the Wikipedia page on Financial emergency in Michigan
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School district dissolution
On July 2, 2013, a school district dissolution provision was passed into law allowing school districts that are financially struggling to be dissolved [11] by the state treasurer and state superintendent[12] with the intermediate school district splitting up the district's territory between neighboring school districts.[13] Dissolved school districts become a tax-collecting unit, under the intermediate school district's control, to pay off debts.[14]
Dissolved school districts
Buena Vista School District, July 30, 2013[13]
Inkster Public Schools, July 25, 2013[15]
[...]
The Democratic Candidate for Michigan Governor Mark Schauer, would put an end to this Fiscal madness ... if the good folks of Michigan get the message and respond.
There IS a difference between Schauer and Snyder -- a Big Difference.
Schauer respects local governments; while Snyder simply dissolves them.
SchauerForMichigan -- Youtube Channel
WILX Dead Heat
Link to Video
NBC/Marist Poll:
Snyder 46%
Schauer 44%
Undecided 9%
Mark Schauer/Lisa Brown for Michigan --
Campaign site
In Michigan:
There is a Difference ...