LEGAL NOTICE FEE ADJUSTMENT S.B. 147:

ANALYSIS AS PASSED BY THE SENATE

Senate Bill 147 (as passed by the Senate)

Sponsor: Senator Sylvia Santana

Committee: Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety

Date Completed: 5-13-25

RATIONALE

The Revised Judicature Act specifies the rates that newspapers may charge for publishing legal notices such as orders, citations, summons, and advertisements, among others. The rates for these notices have been adjusted to reflect the rate of the Consumer Pirce Index (CPI) from 1996 to 1999, 2008 to 2013, and 2017 to 2025. Some believe that continually requesting the Legislature to extend the sunset or reset the CPI language is burdensome and unnecessary and that accordingly the allowable statutory rates should be annually adjusted for inflation.

CONTENT

The bill would amend the Revised Judicature Act to delete a March 1, 2025, sunset on the requirement that the Department of Treasury annually adjust legal notice publishing fees by the United States CPI.

The Act prescribes the minimum and maximum rates that a newspaper may charge for publishing a legal notice or an order, citation, summons, advertisement, or other matter required by law to be published in a newspaper. Annually until March 1, 2025, the Department of Treasury must adjust the rates by the percentage increase in the CPI for the preceding calendar year, rounded to the nearest five cents. The bill would delete the March 1, 2025, sunset on this provision.

The statutory publication costs and adjusted amounts are described below:

Publication	Statutory Amount	Adjusted Amount¹
First publication rate per 100 words (folio)	$20.50	$30.65
Per folio cost for subsequent publication	8.45	12.70
Minimum cost for notice published once	44.00	65.80
Minimum cost for notice published twice or more	59.00	88.15

MCL 600.2534

PREVIOUS LEGISLATION

(This section does not provide a comprehensive account of previous legislative efforts on this subject matter.)

The bill is a reintroduction of Senate Bill 1067 of the 2023-2024 Legislative Session. Senate Bill 1067 passed the Senate and was referred to the House Committee on Government Operations but received no further action.

[1] "Inflation Adjustments: Legal Notice Newspaper Publication Costs Effective March 1, 2025." Department of Treasury, https://tinyurl.com/3tshehub Retrieved 4-4-25.

ARGUMENTS

(Please note: The arguments contained in this analysis originate from sources outside the Senate Fiscal Agency. The Senate Fiscal Agency neither supports nor opposes legislation.)

Supporting Argument

Increasing statutory fees and providing for their annual increase by the rate of the CPI would allow newspapers to better cover their costs of publishing mandated notices. According to testimony before the Senate Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety, costs associated with publishing a newspaper have continued to increase, but newspapers cannot raise their rates for publishing legal notices. Further, the passage of Public Act 76 of 2022, requires newspapers to publish certain notices on the their websites free of charge.¹ Current statute should be amended to allow legal notice fee rates to be annually adjusted at the rate of inflation so newspapers can keep up with operational costs.

Legislative Analyst: Eleni Lionas

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill would have no fiscal impact on the Department of Treasury. The Department would have to continue to adjust rates annually according to the CPI. As the Department already performs this work, no additional appropriations would be required.

Fiscal Analyst: Michael Siracuse

[1] Public Act 76 of 2022 requires a newspaper operator to publish an order, ordinance, advertisement, report, and other additional information required by statute on the newspaper's website without additional charge, among other things.

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.