Dr. Eric Scorsone of Michigan State University Extension worked with Michigan Department of Treasury officials to develop and deliver state-sanctioned Emergency Manager training to approximately 400 people who paid $175 each to attend two two-day training courses this year. Michigan’s new Emergency Financial Manager law allows the state to install EMs to replace local officials and run municipalities and school districts in financial distress. In the wide-ranging interview with Lansing Online News co-publisher Bonnie Bucqueroux, Dr. Scorsone discusses how the new Financial Managers will function.
This link takes you to a map produced by Progress Michigan that tracks places vulnerable to the appointment of a Financial Manager and those that have them.
Topics covered: Issues of race and class - How many communities and school districts at risk? - Tax cuts vs revenue sharing - Race to the bottom? - Michigan’s declining wealth
Topics covered: Education - Revenue sharing - Ideology? - Interconnectedness - Debt ceiling
Topics covered: Why MSU Extension? - What does the training cover? - Who takes the training? - Oversight? - Breaking contracts
Tell me this is a joke, or a bad dream …