Dear Friend,

Last month, I signed several commonsense, bipartisan bills to lower costs, protect consumers, keep kids safe, and cut red tape.

We’ve already 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 our progress and help more people, families, and small businesses ‘make it’ in Michigan.

Since I took office, I have now signed a record 1,575 bipartisan bills into law. Read below how these bills will make a difference for you.

Let’s keep getting things done.

Sincerely,

Gretchen Whitmer

Governor

Lowering the Cost of Online Tickets, Keeping Kids Safe, Lowering Costs for Military Families, and Cutting Red Tape

Lowering the Cost of Online Tickets

I signed a series of bills that together establish the Event Online Ticket Sales Act (also known as the Taylor Swift bills) to prohibit bots from buying large quantities of tickets for concerts, sporting events, and shows. For too long, these bots have been used to jack up ticket prices, preventing people from seeing their favorite artist, team, or act. Our new legislation also allows the Michigan Attorney General to bring a civil action of up to $5,000 per illegally obtained ticket.

I am grateful to state Sen. Mary Cavanagh and state Rep. Mike Harris who worked across the aisle to get this done. Together, we will stop bots from raising ticket prices and ensure that you can go out and see live events without breaking the bank.

Keeping Kids Safe

Another package of bills I signed into law will help child care centers protect students and staff in the event of a shooting or other threat using temporary locks on classrooms and other doors. The legislation gives Michigan child care centers an option for installing door locks, similar to a tool already provided to Michigan schools in 2020. Thanks to state Sen. Jeremy Moss, state Sen. Roger Hauck, and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for working together get this done. 

This new initiative continues the work we’ve done over the last few years to keep Michiganders safe, including our work to enact commonsense gun violence prevention laws: background checks, safe storage, extreme risk protection orders, stronger penalties for domestic abusers, and greater investments in mental health and local law enforcement.

Lowering Costs for Military Families

With the new bills I signed into law, we are lowering the cost of health care and child care for members of the Michigan National Guard, ensuring they can carry out their missions to keep us all safe and provide for their families too.

I’m proud that legislators worked across the aisle to pass these commonsense bills, building on years of bipartisan progress to help our National Guard balance their service with their daily lives. Let’s keep working together to make health care and child care more affordable for everyone and stay focused on getting things done that make a real difference in people’s lives.

Cutting Red Tape

I also signed a package of bills to cut red tape and modernize key regulations that will ultimately lower costs, improve efficiency, and support small businesses and farmers.

These bills will make it easier for businesses like auto repair shops and small food businesses to operate by streamlining licensing and inspections and protecting our farmers.