Nearly a year ago, the Department of Justice documented widespread civil rights violations in Ferguson, Missouri, where city officials, police officers, and a compromised judge ran a corrupt system that balanced the municipal budget on the backs of the poor, fleecing them for minor infractions and imposing harsh penalties for late payment. After years of jaw-dropping abuses, rights violations, and needless brutality, much of it directed at black residents, the city was poised for an eruption when Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Protests, civil unrest, and more police abuses followed.

Last week, DOJ’s expensive plan for reforming the oppressive system was made public. Cash-strapped city leaders now face a defining choice: “Ferguson can approve the agreement, trusting that voters will approve two tax increases in April that will provide some relief,” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, “or it can reject it, hoping to prevail in a lawsuit the Justice Department would almost certainly file against the city.” Either course will leave the city in dire financial straits.

The 131-page agreement is already the product of protracted negotiations with the city, and includes the following mandates to be overseen by an independent monitor: