COMMENTARY: Preserve government of the people

By Ron Seigel Nearly 175 years ago Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address called on Americans to assure that "government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." Today, government of the people and by the people is vanishing from many Michigan cities. Our state legislators are blatantly ignoring the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence on which our nation was founded: that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. In many cities the state has abruptly taken away power from officials democratically chosen by the residents and replaced their authority with emergency financial managers who were never voted into office and often do not live in the cities they rule. This happens when cities fail to have a balanced budget. The current Michigan state constitution, approved in the early 1960s declares that every government body in the state has to have a balanced budget. In order to enforce this legislation, the State Legislature passed laws putting cities under emergency financial managers when they fail to live up to such specifications. The financially troubled city of Detroit is now in danger of having a financial manager take over. There is a possibility that other states may take up such a system and this may be adopted on a widespread basis throughout the country. This year the Michigan State Legislature passed a law giving even more powers to these financial managers. In one of the ironies of history, most of the legislators who voted for it were in the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln. Many of them were part of the Tea Party Movement, who a few short months before were heatedly campaigning on opposing "big government" infringing on the rights of the people. One must add at this point that since the administration of another Republican, President George Bush, the federal government has been unable to balance its own budget. One wonders how the conservative Republicans and the Tea Party movement members would respond if the U.N. or Red China (who we owe much of the debt to) were to suggest appointing a financial manager over America and taking away authority from President Obama and House Speaker Boehner. U.S. Congressman John Conyers, a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee who represents large portions of Detroit as well as the cities of Hamtramck, Highland Park and Allen Park, wrote a letter asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to examine whether the exercise of this power by the state represents a violation of the U.S. Constitution. He pointed out that Article 4 of the U.S. Constitution specifies that each state shall have "a republican [representative] form of government." Conyers noted, "It goes without saying that appointing an unelected manager in place of an elected mayor, city council and other public officials would be totally antithetical to the concept of democracy." It would even be a violation of republican forms of government with limited sufferage like the one in ancient Rome. Conyers also suggested that the emergency manager system appears to violate the federal Voting Rights Act "which prohibits procedures that discriminate on the basis of race and color." He noted the law had been applied to areas "which have very high proportions of African Americans and other minorities like Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Hamtramck, Highland Park and the public schools systems of Inkster and Detroit." By putting Detroit under a financial manager, Conyers declares "the State would be perpetuating the discrimination on an even more egregious scale." However applied, the financial manager system would certainly have its principle affect in eroding voting rights in areas with lower incomes. Given the history of government abuses, one wonders if Black cities are targeted first because of racism or a divide and conquer tactic to prevent widespread resistance. If the denial of the right to vote is simply confined to a few minority groups, the majority may be lulled into believing this cannot happen to them. Congressman Conyers noted it is "particularly galling" that the State of Michigan is considering the "radical step" of taking over Detroit for failure to balance its budget when a lot of Detroit's fiscal problems come from the state's own failure to live up to its own agreement. In 1998 the state agreed to maintain its revenue sharing funds set at $333.9 million a year if the city reduced its income tax rate. Conyers said that because of that the city had lost $400 million in tax revenue, which the state was supposed to compensate for. Conyers said despite its promise, the state reduced its revenue sharing "thus far" by $220 million. When Mayor David Bing noted this a few weeks ago, a charming TV newscaster ridiculed him, noting that it was unlikely the state would do anything about it. One wonders why the press as a whole has not investigated this violation of trust and questioned why state officials have not corrected this breach of promise before even thinking of removing self-determination from a big city. Governor Richard Snyder press secretary, Sara Wurfel, maintains "this issue is not the Governor's to decide." She states "that was 13 years ago over two past administrations and multiple legislatures." "Governor Snyder can't look backward, only forward," she wrote. "He's focused on how to best help the city of Detroit move forward in tough economic times." She also states that "he signed into law provisions that continue both the city's income and utility tax and signed into law a supplemental appropriation of more than $10 million in constitutional revenue sharing to help protect Detroit due to the dramatic drop in population from the 2010 census." The fact is, though, the Governor, who is in power now, could use his influence to replace all the funding that was lost and not just provide a percentage of it or prevent future damage. One might also ask about the state constitution that mandates every organ of government have a balanced budget. The constitutional convention which was responsible for it was established under an unrepresentative apportionment system discriminating against urban dwellers and Democratic areas. It would have been ruled unconstitutional today under a later ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court establishing a one man one vote system. Noting the fact that many who voted giving more power to financial managers were members of the Tea Party Movement, one must remember that members of our original Boston Tea Party were not protesting against high taxes (they were afraid the tea taxes were so low it might break the colonial boycott) but taxation without representation. The American Revolution itself started largely because of King George's attempt to interfere with elected representatives. It is time for people of all political persuasions and all political parties to oppose replacing elected officials with financial managers. Call President Obama at the White House Comment Line at (202) 456-1111 and urge him to get the Attorney General to challenge Michigan laws. Work to get a referendum on the most recent law and a state constitutional amendment banning interference with government of the people, by the people and for the people. A town meeting with Detroit officials will be scheduled on this issue 5 p.m. Monday January 2 at the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, 2080 W. Grand Blvd. near Grand River. Published: Fri, Dec 30, 2011