Governor Snyder’s enthusiasm for the emergency manager law seemed totally genuine and unforced—not something he was pushed to do by the Tea Party or anybody else. One of the first bills he signed was Public Act 4, a beefed-up version of a prior EM law that allowed him to take over a municipality that was beset with financial problems. Even though Michigan voters shot down Public Act 4 in a referendum, the ideologues in the legislature ignored the voters and passed the law again, one month later.
