pontiac, michael stampler, studies the situation and writes a budget letter. june of last year.id property values have fallen sharply. property base is down 20% from the year before and people are not paying what they owe. to make matters worse, the state's changed the law about sharing tax money with michigan's towns and cities so pontiac is going to get 32% less money from that source and the town's population has dropped by 10%. which means less help from the state. plus tax money from the county is down 8 o% leaving the city on the hook for a couple million in debt. add all of this up on one side of the ledger, if pontiac, michigan, laid off every single person, and as an emergency manager, you can do that. if you fired everybody, if you eliminated the whole town payroll, pontiac would still be in the red, in deficit by over $1 million. even with nobody working for the town. with all the power michigan republicans had given him, with unilateral authority to ignore the city's founding charter and do anything he wants, with the power to be a dictator in the particular american

after his speech last week the michiganians in the room built up democracy themselves by telling michael stamplerof the local radical law. >> abraham lincoln coincident coincidentally a republican is famous for saying that in america we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. does it bother you that we basically are flushing the idea down the toilet, voters take a hit, unions take a hit, workers take a hit, democracy takes a hit, everybody takes a hit. at the risk of sounding like a 99% percenter, wall street geta free ride. >> what did you think the charter meant to our city? >> it's an interesting reading. >> i remember my grandfather fighting in mississippi for the right to vote. we believe in voting. i've always voted. to come in and take away people's right to vote and even if you say, you know what? we don't need emergency financial managers, but to come in and not let any community people make a decision, i'm still trying to figure it out. >> mishchigan, you could be stu with this law for a while. on thursday in michigan they voted to stop an effort to repeal th