Editorial: New law requires legal notices in one statewide location

On May 12, Gov. Whitmer signed a new law that took effect immediately. Since then newspapers across the state have been moving quickly to get in compliance.
Senate Bills 258 and 259 require newspapers to keep printing their legals as they have been, but to also make them available free on line on their sites and on a state website.
The Michigan Press Association is running the state website and every legal posted there is at a charge of $5 each per week, which has newspaper publishers statewide grumbling, but complying.
The Independent website has a “LEGAL” spot on the top of the home page and when you tap that you go to a link to the state website with the Belleville-Area Independent name already typed in. Theoretically, readers will be able to get legals from any municipality in the state using this procedure.
The MPA explained that it has been resisting proposals for many years at the Legislature to have legals no longer required to be printed in local papers in favor of only being on the municipal websites. But, some municipalities don’t keep their websites current and there’s lots of old information on them. Check it out for yourself. Scary.
This is a compromise, the MPA said. But some legislators want municipalities free of paying for legal notices in papers and so other bills are pending. Stay tuned.