This is why we need to be thinking about the 2014 midterm election

Back in August, I wrote about how the repeal of Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — would, by law, leave Michigan without any law creating Emergency Managers or Emergency Financial Managers. I showed pretty clearly how the law prevents PA 72, the predecessor to PA 4, from coming back.

This week, the Michigan Court of Appeals chose to completely disregard the Michigan constitution and, in essence, allow the resurrection of Zombie Law PA 72 anyway.

The state Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts lawfully holds office because he was appointed under Public Act 72, the state’s weaker emergency manager law.

In a one-page opinion, presiding Judge Kirsten Frank Kelly wrote that no part of Public Act 4 remains in effect as the result of the Nov. 6 election, and the section of P.A. 4 repealing P.A. 72 — Michigan’s prior emergency manager law — did not survive the referendum and has no effect.

“Roberts was appointed under P.A. 72 after P.A. 4 was suspended and lawfully holds office,” Kelly wrote for the court.

Here’s the problem with this continued pretzel logic being used by conservatives to get what they want: the law is VERY clear about what happens to statutes repealed by new laws that are struck down. Section 8.4 of the Michigan Compiled Laws which says:

Revised Statutes of 1846 (EXCERPT)
CHAPTER 1. OF THE STATUTES.

8.4 Effect of repeal of repealing statute.

Sec. 4.

Whenever a statute, or any part thereof shall be repealed by a subsequent statute, such statute, or any part thereof, so repealed, shall not be revived by the repeal of such subsequent repealing statute.

History: R.S. 1846, Ch. 1 ;– CL 1857, 3 ;– CL 1871, 3 ;– How. 3 ;– CL 1897, 51 ;– CL 1915, 65 ;– CL 1929, 77 ;– CL 1948, 8.4

You don’t need to be a lawyer, much less an Appeals Court judge, to understand that. But that is exactly what Judge Kelly did. She seems to parse the words “repeal” and “suspend” in such a way that the latter allows PA 72 to come back to life while the former blows it to pieces with a double-barreled shotgun (because anyone who has seen Day of the Living Dead knows that’s the only way to kill a zombie.)

I even created this handy flowchart to help these people to understand the situation. The “Bill” mentioned in the flowchart is uber-conservative Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette who first made the ruling that PA 72 — the Zombie Law — would rise from the dead with the repeal of PA 4:

It’s pretty astonishing that an Appeals Court justice is so flagrantly disregarding the law. I can only hope the Supreme Court isn’t so cavalier.

[CC zombie image credit: Michael-Chapman.com]

This one is easy

Third in a series on the ballot proposals on Michigan’s November 6, 2012 ballot. Read them all HERE.

Regular readers of this website know very well that I abhor Public Act 4 — Michigan’s so-called Emergency Manager Law. It is the most outrageous government overreach in my lifetime, put in place by hypocritical Republicans who claim that they are for “smaller government”. The fact is, there is no larger government intrusion into the lives of Michiganders than PA 4. Period.

Rachel Maddow, whose staff has worked closely with me over the past 18 months on this issue, called PA 4 “the single most radical thing in American politics in this fairly radical year” in 2011. That’s not hyperbole.

The fact is, PA 4 has been a failure. The cities where it has been put in place are NOT better off than they were before Emergency Managers were put in place. The reason is obvious. The reasons cities in Michigan are facing financial emergencies is rarely because they were mismanaged. It’s because they are aging manufacturing cities with crumbling infrastructure and a tax base that can no longer support their citizens. They need to be built UP again.

Instead, we send in unelected dictators armed only with axes and chainsaws and other implements of destruction. There is no way to build with the tools they have.

It’s clear that Republicans fear municipal bankruptcies. But, as I have pointed out in the past, at least the bankruptcy process protects democracy and public assets. Repealing PA 4 is the first step in forcing our state government to begin dealing with the core problems that create financial emergencies in the first place.

We need a new wave of urban renewal in Michigan’s aging manufacturing cities. We begin by rejecting Public Act 4.

Here is the television ad being run to urge a NO vote on Proposal 1:

This Proposal requires a NO vote. NO to restoring Public Act 4. NO to Emergency Managers. NO to state government-appointed dictators. NO to abridging democracy in Michigan.

VOTE NO ON PROPOSAL 1.

Taking back control

In the wake of the suspension of Public Act 4, Michigan no longer has “Emergency Managers”. We now have, once again, “Emergency FINANCIAL Managers”, men and women with reduced power and a singular focus on financial matters. Several school districts and municipalities around the state have wasted no time in reasserting their power as elected officials.

Last night, for example, the City of Pontiac voted to reclaim their city from Louis Schimmel:

A showdown is brewing in Pontiac over who controls city government after the city council voted Monday night to reclaim the power it lost when an emergency manager was appointed to run the financially-struggling community.

By a 6-0 vote with one absence, the council demanded that “authority over all city finances and financial decision-making should be restored,” to the mayor and council, according to the resolution.

That power had belonged to Louis Schimmel, an emergency manager appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder in September 2011 to address budget deficits.

“He has no authority,” Councilman Donald Watkins said of Schimmel after the vote. “We have not hired Mr. Schimmel.”

The Mayor of Pontiac, Leon Jukowski, does NOT agree with the council’s action.

Pontiac Mayor Leon Jukowski, who was stripped of his mayoral powers but has been working as a paid advisor to Schimmel, said he plans to veto the resolution, though he expects it to be overridden.

“They don’t recognize the authority of the attorney general,” Jukowski said. “I’m speechless at the stupidity of what happened here.”

In Highland Park, school board member and anti-EM/EFM lawyer Robert Davis is suing the state to remove Emergency Financial Managers Joyce Parker (Highland Park) and Roy Roberts (Detroit):

Robert Davis, a school board member in Highland Park, filed a request today with the state attorney general to remove the emergency financial managers running Highland Park Schools and the Detroit Public Schools.

Davis, who has had some success in the past suing public bodies for violating legal procedures, claims that the governor skipped several steps when he appointed the officials on Wednesday.

Davis expects Schuette to deny his argument because Schuette’s office provides legal representation for emergency financial managers. If the denial occurs, Davis said he will take his case to Wayne County Circuit Court. His case would be the third since Wednesday in a power struggle over the Detroit schools.

I’ll confess it’s a bit hard to take Davis entirely seriously. Recall that Davis is facing a 16-count federal indictment on fraud charges.

John Covington, the head of the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan, a collection of Michigan’s most desperate and failing schools, is vowing to push on with his initiatives, despite a vote by the Detroit Public Schools to pull out of the EAA.

The leader of the reform district scheduled to operate 15 schools in Detroit in the fall released a statement today saying that he intends to move forward with overseeing those schools.

John Covington, chancellor of the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan, said he wants to assure parents that the Detroit school board cannot stop the EAA from operating.

“We have received a number of calls from parents this morning voicing concern and uncertainty about the start of school Sept. 4 as a result of a vote taken last night by the Detroit Board of Education,” Covington said. “It is unfortunate that the board took that vote because clearly it has no legal authority to interfere in any way with the opening of the EAA schools.”

His statement comes after the Detroit school board on Thursday night voted to terminate the interlocal agreement between the Detroit Public Schools and Eastern Michigan University that created the EAA. The board also voted to cancel the transfer of 15 DPS schools – and about 11,000 students – to the EAA, which was created to educate students in the lowest-performing 5% of schools across the state.

In Flint, an investigation has been started over the 11th hour actions of former EM Michael Brown who put in place an incredibly large number of actions right before he was kicked out of his position with the suspension of PA 4:

Selling Genesee Towers for $1 to be demolished. Eliminating three citizen advisory groups. Ordering a proposed new property tax on the November ballot.

They’re three of more than 60 actions signed by former emergency manager Michael Brown without prior public notice in his final days in office, and now the Flint City Council is taking steps to investigate why they were done.

The council voted 7-0 tonight to hold an investigative hearing to learn why Brown executed the orders before he left office Wednesday, the day a voter referendum of Public Act 4 was certified for the ballot, effectively suspending the emergency manager law and rendering Brown ineligible for the seat.

Public Act 4 grants emergency managers broad powers to operate city government, including the authority to transfer a community’s assets and order a millage election.

“These were done in the 11th hour,” said City Councilman Bernard Lawler, who called for the hearing. “There is public assets and resources being transferred for private use.

Sixty! Wow! You can read more on the history of some of the deals Brown put in place HERE.

The Flint city council is also taking steps to thwart the imposition of a new EFM, Ed Kurtz.

The council also took steps against the appointment of the city’s new emergency financial manager, Ed Kurtz, who led Flint through it’s first state takeover in 2002-04. The state appointed Kurtz Wednesday under Michigan’s previous emergency financial manager law, Public Act 72, after the new law was suspended pending the November vote.

Kurtz then appointed Brown as his city administrator.

Meanwhile, Governor Snyder’s administration plunges forward with even more EFMs. This time it’s Allen Park facing the imposition of a local dictator, albeit one with somewhat less power than he or she would have had two weeks ago:

A financial review team has recommended that Allen Park get an emergency manager.

The 12-page report, submitted to the governor this week states that “a local government financial emergency exists within the City of Allen Park, and that no satisfactory plan exists to resolve that emergency.”

Allen Park Mayor William Matakas said Friday he opposes the recommendation.

“I’m obviously not very happy,” he said.

A six-member financial review team visited Allen Park during the past four weeks to assess the financial condition of the city. A previous preliminary review found that the city had high debt, an over-budget administration and excess police expenses during the previous fiscal year.

That review also said the city failed to file an adequate deficit-elimination plan with the state.

Matakas is hopeful that the state will allow them to file a deficit-elimination plan and avoid the takeover.

There’s a significant point to be made in all of this, particularly as it pertains to the state’s position that they had no choice and were forced to impose EMs/EFMs: these bureaucrats have only destructive tools in their arsenal. In failing cities and school districts that are deep in debt, there is no tool at their disposal for building or REbuilding. There is no way to invest in the future or to create new programs that could enhance revenue streams and make the schools and municipalities solvent again.

All an Emergency Financial Manager or an Emergency Manager can do is CUT. ELIMINATE. SELL OFF. LIQUIDATE. REDUCE. DESTROY.

The reasons for the crises these schools and cities face are varied but, in large part, they are due to the implosion of the manufacturing base that was at the center of everything they do. Cutting and destroying won’t replace that. Elimination and liquidation won’t build them back up and restore them to wholeness.

The repeal of Public Act 4 is essential because it will force the state of Michigan to confront this reality head on. Instead of approaching the plight of our cities and schools from a “cut only” destructive stance, faced with widespread bankruptcies, the state will be forced to begin the difficult process of REBUILDING. STRENGTHENING. CONSTRUCTING. INVESTING.

Only when this path is undertaken will our cities and schools stand a chance at being put whole again. You can’t build things up with tools of destruction and it’s high time the Snyder administration figures that out.

This will NOT be pretty

Now that Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — is suspended pending the November election, stuff is really beginning to hit the fan around the state.

In Highland Park, a school board member sent a letter to Emergency Manager Joyce Parker telling her to pack her bags now that her appointment has been nullified by the suspension of PA 4. (I hadn’t realized this but Parker is also the Emergency Manager for the city of Ecorse, as well.)

Last night in Flint, the city council voted to sue the state to rid itself of newly appointed Emergency Financial Manager Ed Kurtz. They believe the city is no longer in a financial emergency and, therefore, doesn’t qualify to be ruled by an EFM.

In Detroit, the school board got right to work reversing many of the actions of Roy Roberts, the district’s EM.

Late Thursday, board members voted to rescind the move of 15 Detroit schools into the Education Achievement Authority, the state’s new recovery district for failing schools, to sever ties with the EAA and cancel a contract with Teach for America because it was made through the EAA. They also named John Telford, a Detroit activist, as interim superintendent. {…}

Earlier Thursday, DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said in a statement the EAA agreement would not be changed, regardless of any vote by the board. “The EAA was established by a legally binding Interlocal Agreement between Eastern Michigan University and Detroit Public Schools, and is not impacted by the change in law.”

But it doesn’t stop there. EM Roberts sought an injunction to prevent the school board from unraveling what he has done. To make the entire thing even more screwed up, state Attorney General Bill Schuette sued to force the school board to shed 7 of its 11 members. He contends that, because the school system is no longer a Class 1 district, all of their board members should be voted in as at-large candidates and 7 of them were voted in from districts.

This is just the beginning of the fallout from the suspension of PA 4 and we’re sure to see more drama and more lawsuits between now and November and probably long afterwards.

Get out your popcorn.

I didn’t see that one coming at all

This wrote about Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s brief to the Michigan Supreme Court in which she says that if the petitions to repeal Public Act 4 are insufficient to meet the rules set out in our state constitution, the so are ALL of the other ballot initiative’s petitions. My comment in that post was that it “gives me hope” and I suggested that this was an unintended and undesirable side effect of this court challenge.

I’m having second thoughts on that.

Dana Houle sent me this tweet:

@eclectablog I thought the Chamber’s position was to vote no on everything

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 25, 2012

Then, a bit later, David Holtz, former Executive Director of Progress Michigan left this comment on the Eclectablog Facebook page:

If I were inclined toward cynical conspiracy theory on this I might think that since the MI and DTW Chambers of Commerce-Big Business–is mounting a vote no campaign on all ballot measures this would give the GOP Supreme Court majority a nice way of delivering to their patrons. One ruling=mission accomplished. Taking it a step further, that’s a whole lot of chamber political money freed up to help the Republicans keep their Supreme Court majority this year. Of course this isn’t the case and the Secretary of State didn’t really hand over an excuse to gut the ballot. That’s too cynical for even me to believe. Right?

I did some checking. They’re right. A coalition of business “leaders” has formed to encourage everyone to “just vote no” on every ballot initative.

From Rick Pluta at Michigan Radio:

A coalition of business groups will urge voters to say “no” to every question that appears on the November ballot.

Rich Studley is with the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and a coalition leader. He said the ballot questions are constitutional amendments that deal with labor issues, energy policy, casinos, a Detroit border crossing, and taxation. There is also a proposed challenge to the state’s emergency manager law. He said these are policy questions that should be dealt with by the Legislature, and tweaked by lawmakers when it becomes it becomes necessary. He said putting them into the state constitution would mean it would take another amendment, and another ballot campaign, to make changes.

Tim Skubick has more:

The Just-Vote-No on every ballot proposal is the ultimate in trying to manipulate a very malleable electorate. Instead of wasting hours studying each plan and assessing the pros and cons, this says chuck that stuff and take the easy way out.

Rich Studley, president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, says the coalition is considering this recommendation because it’s a neat way to keep all of these issues from cluttering the state constitution.

The more I think about it, the more this seems like just one more part in a very well-executed plan, led by the Chamber of Commerce, to ensure that nothing happens that rocks the boat or changes the status quo for the business community. They like all of the privatization that’s happening. They like most of the various ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments are trying to change.

Most of all, they like the fact that they have a very right-leaning, pro-Big Business supreme court to make this historic decision.

And it will be historic if they uphold the challenge to the PA 4 petitions. From here on out, precedent and stare decisis will no longer govern how the Supreme Court rules. And decades of decisions are suddenly wide open for reinterpretation.

Think about that for a minute.

UPDATE: By the way, I’m not the only one who whiffed on this. David Eggert at MLive suggests that Ruth Johnson is going against the Big Business grain:

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, a Republican, and the bipartisan Board of State Canvassers – which deadlocked 2-2 on certifying the citizen-initiated repeal for the November election – filed a brief more in line with supporters of the proposed referendum than critics.

That puts them at odds with GOP Gov. Rick Snyder, Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette and a business-affiliated group that want to keep the measure off the ballot.

I think he’s wrong about that, just like I was.

Didn’t think of THAT didjya?

NOTE: this post has been updated HERE.

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson filed a brief (pdf) with the state Supreme Court last week that gives me hope. In the case the Court is hearing in front of a packed courtroom today regarding the font size issue with the Public Act 4 repeal petitions, her office suggested that if the PA 4 (Emergency Manager law) repeal petitions are disqualified, the petitions for ALL SIX of the other ballot initiatives would also be disqualified:

The State Defendants … observe that construing § 482(2) to require capital letter measuring exactly 14 points in height, will most certainly render the six additional petitions proposing various initiatives for the November 2012 general election that have been filed with the Secretary of State invalid.

In other words, ALL of the ballot initiative petitions are deficient and would be disqualified.

The ones at jeopardy are:

• Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs – requires 25% of the state’s electricity be from clean renewable energy sources by 2025
• Protect Our Jobs – a constitutional amendment to protect collective bargaining
• Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care – Constitutional amendment that, among other things, allow for limited collective bargaining rights for Home Care employees
• Citizens for More Michigan Jobs – constitutional amendment that increases the number of casinos in Michigan
• The People Should Decide – constitutional amendment to require construction and financing of bridges and tunnels be voted on by Michigan voters
• Michigan Alliance for Prosperity – constitutional amendment requiring a 2/3 majority vote in the legislature or a statewide vote for any tax increase

Keep in mind that some of these are initiatives that conservatives are clamoring for. However, if the Emergency Manager Law repeal is shot down, these go down with it.

Sorry, face. This nose has got to go.

Public Act 4: Anti-democratic, anti-American

Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 25th, the Michigan state Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding the petitions used to gather signatures to put Public Act 4, Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law. At issue is whether or not a concocted lie about the font size of a single phrase on the petition, “REFERENDUM OF LEGISLATION”, is enough to disenfranchise Michigan voters and throw away the voice of the nearly quarter million people who signed the petitions.

You can join the protest at the Supreme Court tomorrow and free bus rides are available from around the state. Details are below.

The tax money-wasting delay tactic of bringing this to the Supreme Court is just that: a delay tactic. Proponents of the anti-democratic, ant-American law know that it is their best interest to keep things in a state of disarray for as long as possible. It prevents an effective campaign to pass the repeal from being mounted and, more importantly, it keeps Public Act 4 in place until right before the election. Recall that, once enough petition signatures have been certified, the law immediately goes on hold.

The Board of State Canvassers isn’t going to make a decision on ANY of the ballot measures, in fact, until “no later than September 22nd”, giving just over a month to get out the vote for any of them.

But the first step is for the Supreme Court to do the right thing and force the Board of State Canvassers to certify the petitions.

You can join the protest at the Supreme Court tomorrow. There are free buses from around the state, sponsored by Detroit Rainbow Push. Details are below and visit their Facebook page for more information.

Rainbow PUSH Michigan is coordinating Buses leaving from the following cities on July 25, 2012. The buses are FREE.

ANN ARBOR/ YPSILANTI:
Departs: 7:00 AM
ARBORLAND MALL
3765 Washtenaw Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48104.
For More Information Contact:Rod Casey Sr, Washtenaw County Coordinator
734-340-7417 or email Casey_36@ juno.com

BENTON HARBOR:
Departs: 6:30 AM
BENTON HARBOR CITY HALL
200 E. Wall Street
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
For more information Contact: Reverend Edward Pinkney
(269) 369-8257 or e-mail banco9342@sbcglobal.net

DETROIT:
Departs 7: 00 AM
Bethany Baptist Church
15122 W. Chicago
Detroit, MI 48228
For more information Contact: Earline Hunter
313-836-7667

FLINT:
Departs 7: 00 AM
Hasselbring Community Center
1002 West Home Avenue
Flint, MI 48505
For more information Contact: Pastor Latrell Holmes or Bishop Jefferson
(810) 252-3010 or e-mail bljfaith1@yahoo.com

MUSKEGON HEIGHTS:
Departs 7:00 AM
Greater Harvest Baptist Church
2435 Riordan St.
Muskegon, MI 49444
For more information please call B.W.P.C. Chairperson Marianne Harris-Darnell at (708)-456-6116

PONTIAC:
Departs 7:00 AM
Trinity Missionary Baptist Church
123 Wesson Street
Pontiac, MI 48341
For more information please call Pastor John Tolbert (248)334-5043

Welcome! We saved you a seat!

After sitting on the sidelines for over a year in the battle to repeal Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — the Michigan AFL-CIO labor union has now entered the fray. They are participating in a rally at the Michigan Court of Appeals next Wednesday.

It’s still not on the ballot. The Repeal of Public Act 4, the so-called Emergency Manager Law, has been delayed for far too long.

Please join us for an important rally and help make sure that Michigan voters get a chance to decide this critical issue.

When: Wednesday, July 11 at 3 P.M.
Where: MICHIGAN COURT APPEALS: DISTRICT I -DETROIT
Cadillac Place
3020 West Grand Boulevard; Suite 14-300
Detroit, MI 48202-6020

In addition to showing up, you can help by reaching out to your extended social network, including leaders and laymen in your communities of faith. Ask them to participate in and promote this rally.

In Solidarity,
Karla Swift, president

This is terrific news for those who value democracy and voting rights in Michigan. While I have long wished the major labor groups outside of the Michigan Education Association would have been involved earlier in this battle, I’m thrilled at least one of them is getting involved now.

Welcome aboard!

March for Democracy and Freedom in Michigan

UPDATE: This march has been cancelled. See my update HERE.

For five days later this month, July 23-27, the Michigan Chapter of the National Action Network will march from Detroit to Lansing along Grand River Avenue, to protest the egregious actions of Republicans in Michigan. From overreaching voter suppression laws to the Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — activists from around the state are outraged by Republican efforts to disenfranchise Michigan voters.

An organizing meeting will take place this Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit (6100 14th Street, Detroit.)

I spoke with Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the Michigan Chapter of NAN this afternoon. He told me that this march is modeled after the Selma to Montgomery march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965.

“With this march, we will step into the same shoes as our ancestors did, marching for democracy and justice,” he said.

Indeed, the name of the march is “March for Democracy and Freedom”. Rev. Williams says the focus is on educating people about the issues facing Michiganders.

“We hope to educate folks from around the state on the issues of voter suppression and Public Act 4 because, for many of them, this really hasn’t hit home,” he told me. “In fact, we hope to educate the rest of the nation, too, because too many people don’t realize what’s happening in Michigan. During the fight for civil rights in the 60s, it wasn’t until people saw images of firehouses and dogs being turned on nonviolent protesters that most Americans knew what was happening. The same thing needs to happen here to educate people.”

Rev. Williams told me that, when Dr. King told President Johnson that passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was good but that blacks also needed the right to vote without interference, Johnson told him it was “too soon.”

“Dr. King didn’t say, ‘Well, that’s fine. I’ll be satisfied with this.’ He kept marching and fighting until the Voting Rights Act was passed. That was only 47 years ago and we need to remember we’re not that far from the days of poll taxes and other ways of taking away people’s right to vote.”

The voter suppression bills recently passed by the Republican-controlled legislature were done so using “immediate effect”, allowing the new rules to be in place for the presidential election in November. Despite the fact that “immediate effect” requires 73 votes and this legislation received only 66 ‘yea’ votes, as is typical, Republicans rammed it through anyway, an illegal act.

Rev. Williams said that people don’t realize how hard it is for poor people to meet the new requirements.

“Needing five pieces of i.d. just to get one i.d. card?” he asked. “Most folks don’t understand how hard it is for poor people come up with that and then get the i.d. they need to vote. It’s an unnecessary hindrance to voting. What we are afraid of is that we’ll go to bed one night thinking we’ve elected one candidate and wake up the next morning to another candidate because thousands of votes have been thrown out. These ‘challenged ballots’ open up the door to the same kind of things that happened to steal elections in 2000 and 2004.

“So, that’s why we’re marching. We need to show the rest of the country and even the world what’s going on in Michigan. And we have to keep up the pressure so that maybe we get the attention of President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.”

March organizers hope as many as 1,000 people will participate over the course of the five days. They will stop at churches each night, holding rallies to highlight the importance of defeating the voter suppression bills by getting Gov. Snyder to veto them, the repeal of Public Act 4, action on immigration and allowing the Protect Our Jobs ballot initiative to get on the ballot in November.

Rev. Charles finished, saying, “We hope to convince Governor Snyder to veto the voter suppression bills on his desk and to urge the Board of State Canvassers to convene immediately to put the repeal of Public Act 4, the Protect Our Jobs amendment and the SEIU’s healthcare initiative on the November ballot. This march will open the movement to everyone working on all of these important issues facing us.”

For more information on the March for Democracy and Freedom, contact the National Action Network at (313) 312-5287 or NANDetroit@gmail.com.

“Fiscal Responsibility” – I don’t think that means what you think it means

The absurdly named group Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility is taking their disenfranchising and deceitful case regarding the Public Act 4 repeal petition font size to the state Supreme Court.

Keep in mind that they already lost at the Court of Appeals level, including a rejection by the entire 28-judge appeals court panel. The Court of Appeals made it very clear the long-established precedent regarding “substantial compliance” of petitions is governs this case. Taking it to the Supreme Court, and doing so more than two weeks after losing at the Court of Appeals, is nothing but a blatant ploy to run out the clock with the hopes that a decision won’t be made in time to meet the August 27th deadline to put the measure on the November ballot, even if they lost their case. Even if the measure does, by some miracle of judicial expediency, make it onto the ballot, these delays limit the amount of time opponents of the Emergency Manager Law have to get out the vote.

It’s a complete waste of taxpayer money in order to further a right-wing agenda. We, as taxpaying citizens, are being forced to pay for the privilege of seeing a group that claims it’s for “fiscal responsibility” attempt to disenfranchise nearly a quarter million Michigan voters.

Remember this in November when every member of the state House and some Senators are up for election/re-election. Remember which side was fighting the disenfranchisement of Michigan voters and which side did everything in its power to promote a pro-business, pro-privatization, anti-labor union disefranchising political agenda.

And they made YOU pay for it.