Gretchen Whitmer AP File Photo

LANSING — Earlier this week, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed bipartisan bills that will lower the cost of online tickets, protect consumers, keep kids safe, cut red tape, protect free speech, and more.

The bills include measures to prevent bots from buying up large numbers of tickets to concerts; keep kids safe by installing temporary locking devices at child care centers and making firearm safety an elective course for Michigan students; cut red tape for farmers, brewers, auto repair businesses, and hunters; help Michiganders defend themselves from meritless lawsuits; and more.

“I’ll work with anyone to lower costs for Michiganders, protect consumers, keep kids safe, and cut red tape,” said Governor Whitmer. “We’ve made historic investments in school safety, and our tax cuts for working families and seniors are putting more money back in Michiganders’ pockets. These commonsense bills will build on the progress we’ve made, make a difference for Michiganders, and help more individuals, families, and small businesses ‘make it’ in Michigan. Let’s keep getting it done.”

Lowering Costs of Online Tickets

Senate Bill 158: The bill creates a new Event Online Ticket Sales Act to prohibit the use of bots to buy large numbers of tickets to concerts, sporting events, and shows, driving up the prices of tickets and pricing out regular consumers. The legislation also allows the Attorney General to bring a civil action of up to $5,000 for a violation of the act.

Keeping Kids Safe

Senate Bill 96: This bill will help child care centers keep students and staff members safe in the event of shootings and other threats using temporary locks on classroom and other doors. The legislation gives Michigan child care centers a similar option for installing door locks, as was provided to schools in 2020.

House Bill 4285: This bill requires the Michigan Department of Education and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to offer a model elective firearm safety course for grades 6-12. The course will use fake firearms to teach students about safety and prohibits real firearms.

Cutting Red Tape

Senate Bill 25: This bill lets auto repair businesses register one nearby auxiliary facility under the same license, updates registration and inspection rules, allows multi-year renewals for large facilities, and improves mechanic certification.

Senate Bill 93: This bill cuts red tape for small food businesses–called cottage food operations–by raising the threshold for licensure, aligning honey and maple syrup producers with other cottage food operations, expanding selling options, and providing more resources.

Senate Bill 269: This law speeds up funding for improvements at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) and helps it access federal funds by streamlining the state review process.

Senate Bill 685: This bill provides clarity to Michigan’s farmland preservation program, letting farmers keep tax credits if they have preexisting agreements, increases funding for the program, and improves record keeping and administration.

House Bill 4098: This law allows the Tax Tribunal to conduct hearings and proceedings electronically.

House Bill 4401: This bill eliminates the sunset on the requirement that a person purchase an annual pheasant license to hunt pheasants in the state.

House Bill 4493: This bill exempts certain operators of concessions in state-owned buildings or on state-owned properties from licensure requirements under the Food Law.

Protecting Free Speech

House Bill 4045: This law creates the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, to let people quickly dismiss meritless lawsuits targeting free speech.

Additional Bills

Senate Bill 23: This bill increases the number of parcels that can be divided from a single tract of land from four to 10. The bill will help address the housing shortage in Michigan by increasing the number of buildable lots on parcels of land.

Senate Bill 136,: This bill updates Michigan’s Radiation Control laws by aligning state standards with the federal Mammography Quality Standards Act, setting minimum training standards, updating fee structures, and more.

Senate Bill 512: This bill provides an update the Liquor Control Code by allowing college-branded alcohol packaging and advertising, enabling brewers to sell nonalcoholic beer and share samples for research, and clarifying and updating brand and trademark rules.

Senate Bill 595, sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater), allows the Michigan-Indiana State Line Commission to fund county remonumentation programs to survey and clarify the Michigan Indiana state border. The bill also extends the act to 2030.