The House Approopriations Committee today passed HB 5056 which would allow restaurants, bars and convenience stores (class C liquor license holders) to stay open until 4 am and be open Sunday morning. The League worked closely with Rep. Hammel, the sponsor, to ensure local control mirroring current law for liquor licenses. The bill included language requiring approval from the local unit before late-night or Sunday hours are allowed for any business. The municipality can also completely opt-out for any of thes extensions (Sunday morning or late night) if they want. The bill passed the Appropriations Committee with support of the League and is expected to be considered in the full House very soon.  The projection is that it will raise $13.7 million and that money will go to the Michigan Future Fund which will be distributed to revenue sharing, medicaid, higher education grants and k-12.  Please contact your Representative and ask him/her to support the bill that passed appropriations.  Even if your community will not use this, others may want to use this so it will bring dollars back to the state and back to communiites.  This local option and local control is also very important, and could assist communities in being more walkable and friendly to young and talented residents.  The bill is expected to be considered before the full House soon.
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