Governor Rick Snyder says he expects teams of financial experts will soon start visiting cities and school districts showing early signs of financial stress. That’s part of the new state’s new fiscal emergency law he just signed.
Critics say the law gives too much authority to emergency managers appointed to run local governments that can no longer pay their bills. But the governor says too little attention has been paid to the early assistance the state is offering to local governments.
“Let’s identify these early on because if you have time and opportunity, quite often you should be able to avoid the financial manager situation. The idea is, hopefully we’re going to see handfuls of these going through it over the next couple of years, but it’s something that’s a serious matter.”
Governor Snyder says having to name an emergency manager would be a failure of the new system. He also says the law will help the three cities and one school district currently run by emergency managers to quickly regain their autonomy.
The state treasurer says nearly 10 local governments may have trouble making payroll this month.
