Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Yay! MI-ers sue over taxation without representation law

This just in: Michiganders are challenging the emergency financial manager (i.e., local dictator) law in court.

According to the New York Times,
More than two dozen residents of Michigan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against top officials in the state contending that a new law broadly expanding the powers of emergency managers in the most financially troubled cities violates Michigan’s Constitution.
The lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court, contends that the law approved by Michigan lawmakers this year improperly allows the state to place new costs on municipalities without paying for them and, in essence, bars local residents from picking their own elected representatives...
Chris Savage has a thorough report on the lawsuit and the campaign to repeal the law at A2Politico. He quotes one of the plaintiffs in the suit, Ann Arbor resident Michael Merriweather:
...when I turn on the television and see local governments in Benton Harbor or Detroit being dismissed, assets and services taken over and sold off, by an unelected, unaccountable, bureaucrat, it is impossible for me not to feel outraged.”
Find out more about Michigan Forward, which is working to repeal the law, here.