It was only a matter of time before somebody suggested it and sure enough a former financial emergency manager has talked about appointing a financial czar to do what the governor and legislative leaders so far have been unable to do, i.e. solve the budget crisis.

     Louis Schimmel who saved the city of Hamtramck years ago was all over NewsRadio 950 the other day putting the czar thing on the table and even hinting that bankruptcy might be another option.

     With all due respect to Mr. Schimmel…it ain't gonna happen.

      It is true that a benevolent dictator/financial manager could resolve the budget mess in a matter of hours by unilaterally doing whatever needs to be done.

      But the last time anyone checked, this was a representative democracy where all the voices get to be heard, and yes, sometimes the voices go on and on and nothing gets done, but no one ever said the democracy had to be neat, prompt and without in-fighting.  In fact you could make the argument that a protracted debate on how to fill in a $1.8 billion dollar budget hole is healthy as all sides get to talk.

    However, there is a time to end the talk and do something and with just over a month to go before a shutdown deadline, many in this town believe that time to act was yesterday.

    The governor and four legislative leaders have been meeting, some progress has been made but still no solution and still no around-the-clock negotiations as far as we can tell.

    Instead of chatting about frivolous bankruptcy and/or money czar options, perhaps Mr. Schimmel should embrace something more realistic:  Put all the players in a room with no windows, no air conditioning, no water and food and lock the door.

    That would be one sure fire way to make the representative democracy work and infuse some badly needed urgency into the budget crisis.