Earlier the same week he visited the White House as part of Donald Trump’s ongoing effort to overturn the results of the presidential election, Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering (pictured at left) saw members of his caucus introduce a legislative package he hopes is the capstone of his half-decade project to move public notice in the state from newspapers to government websites.

It’s an unusual package of 105 separate bills that eliminate particular government notices — e.g., local government meetings, publication of new ordinances, etc. — spread throughout the state’s code. The bills are “tie-barred” to a single proposal, House Bill 6440, designed to serve as Michigan’s new general public notice statute. The tie-barred bills will only take effect if HB6440 passes.

The primary sponsor of the legislation is Chatfield’s 29-year-old colleague and fellow Liberty University graduate Rep. Steven Johnson, R-Wayland (pictured below right), whose name appears on every bill. In addition to eliminating newspaper notice, HB6440 requires local governments and state agencies to post notices on a “website of the required area”. The website can be operated by government agencies or by an “outside entity”, and a majority of its visitors must be “residents of the required area”.

HB6440 also allows local governments to contract with “local media outlets” to publish online notices. But in what appears to be a pointed rebuke of local newspapers, Johnson’s bill restricts the definition of local media outlets to local radio and TV stations.

According to Michigan Press Association (MPA) Public Affairs Manager Lisa McGraw, this is the twelfth straight year Michigan’s GOP has backed a bill to kill newspaper notice. And MPA has been waiting since late last year for this latest version.

But the circumstances surrounding this effort have newspapers in the state very nervous.

First, it’s always concerning when a majority leader targets newspaper notice. And Chatfield really wants to get this done. After serving for six years in the House, term limits will force the 32-year-old high school teacher from office on December 31, so this is his last shot to kill newspaper notice, which he’s been trying to do since he arrived in Lansing. In fact, he made it one of his four priorities for the lame duck session, according to Michigan lobbyists.

Moreover, the complex nature of the legislation itself is proof of the GOP’s seriousness. As McGraw notes, it took a lot of work to draft over 100 separate bills, which was apparently necessary because Michigan lacks a general public notice statute mandating the rules surrounding the provision of notice in the state. “You can’t amend legislation by reference,” explains McGraw.

Both McGraw and PNRC President Brad Thompson, publisher of the Detroit Legal News Co. and a member of the MPA Board of Directors, are cautiously optimistic the legislation can be defeated. “If leadership is hellbent they can possibly get something done,” says Thompson, “but it’s a heavy lift.”

The barriers they must overcome include time — there are only nine days left in the session after the legislature reconvenes today — and the press of other business in both chambers. McGraw notes that Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, said the lame duck session will be devoted “not to wants, but needs.”

“To me, that’s COVID,” she says. “Unemployment, testing, distributing vaccines — that should be the priority.”

McGraw also notes the coronavirus itself might create another barrier. An outbreak among members temporarily shuttered the legislature in November, she says, and there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again this month.

But for now Chatfield and his caucus appear to be determined to circumvent those impediments. They’ve scheduled a committee hearing on the bills this morning and, according to Thompson, hope to advance the package for a vote on the House floor by Wednesday afternoon.