Wrapping brain around something

I caught Rachel Maddow's show (TG for internet) and had to rewind to make sure I was hearing her correctly. In addition to the Wisconsin budget mess, there are huge issues brewing in Michigan's budget proposal.

Chief among them, get this:

Towns are hurting financially.

The governor can declare a town to be in a financial crisis.

The governor can then appoint someone that town's "emergency manager."

The emergency manager has the authority to:

- cancel, amend all contracts in place (including union contracts, natch)

- a bunch of other crap

But here was the biggie (for me): The emergency manager has the authority to dismiss elected officials.

Dismiss. Elected. Officials.

So, a municipality struggling financially can be placed under the management BY WHOMEVER THE GOVERNOR APPOINTS, and THAT PERSON can then, y'know, dismiss the mayor.

Rachel Maddow does a much better job at outlining all this (here's the video) but I needed to get this out, apparently.

Dark days, my friends. Poor Michigan.