Sec. 802.
(1) If a municipality fails to pay any installment of principal or interest on an outstanding municipal security on or before its due date, the state treasurer, for a municipality other than a school district, or the superintendent of public instruction, for a school district, may take that action it considers advisable to investigate the municipality’s fiscal affairs, may consult with the governing body of the municipality, and may negotiate with the municipality’s creditors in order to assist the municipality in developing a plan for financing, adjusting, or compromising the outstanding municipal security for which a payment of an installment of principal or interest had not been paid. As a component of a plan for financing the outstanding municipal security that has been defaulted upon, the department may agree and shall have the power to withhold all or part of state payments under an appropriation made to the municipality, the Glenn Steil state revenue sharing act of 1971, 1971 PA 140, MCL 141.901 to 141.921, or the state school aid act of 1979, 1979 PA 94, MCL 388.1601 to 388.1772, that the municipality is entitled to receive and to use these withheld amounts to pay unpaid amounts or subsequently due amounts, or both, of principal and interest on the outstanding municipal security.
(2) When a plan is developed that the department finds to be fair and equitable and reasonably within the ability of the municipality to meet, the department shall enter an order finding that it is fair, equitable, and within the ability of the municipality to meet. The department shall then advise the governing body to take the necessary steps to implement the plan. If the governing body declines or refuses to do so within 90 days after receiving the department’s advice, the department shall be vested with all powers of the municipality, its governing body, and its officers that are necessary to implement the plan. When the department is vested with the authority to implement the plan, the members of the governing body and all officers and employees of the municipality shall be under an affirmative duty to do all things the department determines to be necessary to implement the plan. The department may institute appropriate proceedings in the courts of this state, including those for writs of mandamus and injunctions, to enforce the department’s implementation of the plan and compliance with the plan by the governing body and other officers and employees of the municipality.
History: Add. 2002, Act 541, Imd. Eff. July 26, 2002