Re: The Michigan Martial Law Act of 2011
There's a least a provision for a court challenge:
24 (3) A local government for which a financial emergency
25 determination under this section has been confirmed to exist may,
26 by resolution adopted by a vote of 2/3 of the members of its
27 governing body elected and serving, appeal this determination
1 within 10 business days to the Ingham county circuit court. The
2 court shall not set aside a determination of financial emergency by
3 the governor unless it finds that the determination is either of
4 the following:
5 (a) Not supported by competent, material, and substantial
6 evidence on the whole record.
7 (b) Arbitrary, capricious, or clearly an abuse or unwarranted
8 exercise of discretion.
The big problem here is that it's a reaction to the poor performance of Act 72. Instead of fixing that Act, however, they've decided to give the state powers that the local governments don't even have: "here, locals, you can't do the things you need to do to fix your budget, so instead we're going to dissolve you and appoint someone from outside of your community to do the things you would do if you could, but without oversight and without input from the people the changes will directly affect".
Interesting side point: the guy who introduced this bill used to be the news director at my dad's radio station when I was in high school.