Campaign for repeal of Michigan’s emergency manager law says they have 80 percent of needed signatures

Opponents of Michigan’s Emergency Manager law say they have 80 percent of the signatures needed to put the measure up to a vote in a referendum next fall.

On a conference call Friday, organizers with the repeal effort said that they have verified 130,000 of 200,000 signatures collected.

The group must collect 161,000 signatures from registered voters and submit them by March 31, 2011 in order to get the law on the ballot.

Brandon Jessup of Michigan Forward said that the group aims to have all the needed signatures collected and verified by the end of the year.

The Emergency Manager law, officially titled the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act, allows political appointees to take over local governments and fire elected officials, cancel labor contracts, outsource services and even dissolve local municipalities.

A July poll of 600 likely voters, conducted by EPIC/MRA, found that a 53-34 percent majority would reject the law, that independent voters would reject it by 58-29 percent, and that 60 percent of Northern Michigan voters would overturn it.

Emergency Managers are in place in Ecorse, Pontiac, Benton Harbor and the Detroit Public Schools. Flint and the Highland Park school system are under financial review by the Treasury Dept. and may be assigned Emergency Managers.