I have been reading this story with shock tempered by schadenfreude. If ever a Governor deserved the kicks Rick Snyder of Michigan is getting right now it’s him, unless it’s his neighbor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

Look at the circumstances. Flint is a city in distress, with its industry gone and its tax base diminishing right along with it. It hasn’t the money to repair its infrastructure, and its governments have been unable to lure new industry and tax dollars. So Republican Snyder decides he’ll make use of the Emergency Manager’s Act of 1988, technically Public Act 101. This manager’s powers are very broad indeed: An emergency manager can:

• Hire/fire local government employees

• Renegotiate, terminate, modify labor contracts with state treasury approval

• Sell, lease, or privatize local assets with state treasury approval

• Revise contract obligations

• Change local budgets without local legislative approval

• Initiate municipal bankruptcy proceedings

• Hire support staff

An emergency manager cannot raise taxes.

In other words, he’s pretty much a dictator.

Anyway, the manager decided Flint could save money by using the Flint River as the city’s source for all its water needs, because buying water from Detroit Water and Sewerage was expensive. Bad decision, since the savings weren’t used to filter the water from the river to keep the lead pipes from corroding and contaminating the water supply. Complaints began almost immediately. Did the Governor listen? Did the state’s Department of Environmental Quality not just ignore the complaints but dismiss them out of hand? Are the politicians at the state level Republicans who worship at the small government altar?

If you answered “no, yes, yes,” you win the prize.