That whole
"Reinvent Michigan" ad campaign used by now-Governor Rick Snyder has taken on a different tone, all of the sudden.
It's true, Michigan is in dire straits. I've been jobless for nearly a year, and most of my extended family have lost their jobs, with only my step-dad having managed to keep his by absorbing the workload of 3 of his peers. Detroit is a wreck of a city, with whole districts burned out and untouched since the 60s, and a long line of mayors who have siphoned money into their personal accounts... the most recent having been impeached (and thank god) not for the years he repurposed city funds to buy expensive gadgets and cars for him and his friends, but for lying about an affair under oath, in Clintonesque fashion.
My city and state is a wreck, with no jobs, corruption aplenty, school districts failing to meet standards since I was a child, houses being foreclosed on and threatening at least 3 families I know with homelessness, and main streets with 1/5 stores closed and boarded up... and I'm not even in a bad city, but just outside of the nicest and biggest University in the state. If there was a cause and a situation to invest emergency powers in a governor, this would be the time. Hell, my family's library is so near closing that they have to charge a $100 membership fee, or they couldn't afford to even check out books.
The lack of balances in place reeks of potential for all manner of political abuses,
so here's hoping that the bill gets a decent measure of revision before it hits the state (Huh, passed already, did it?)... but if this may lead to getting the state back on its feet, I would not be opposed. I only hope they keep things ethical, and minimize their going over the heads of others in cases where it's not needed.