By Kathleen Gray and Paul Egan

Detroit Free Press staff writers

LANSING — Michigan municipalities would have the option of allowing downtown bars to stay open until 4 a.m. on weekend nights under a bill that passed the Senate Thursday.

Senate Bill 247 passed by a 22-14 vote, after an earlier vote on the controversial measure failed.

In testimony earlier this year, state Sen. Virgil Smith, D-Detroit, said the expanded hours would make the bars more competitive and would promote a "safe environment," by either shutting down or regulating so-called "blind pigs," which now operate illegally after 2 a.m.

The bill would allow bars and restaurants in central business districts across the state to expand the hours they sell alcohol to 4 a.m. Currently, those businesses must stop serving and selling at between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. But it would be up to each local government whether to permit the later hours.

The bill now moves to the House for consideration in the lame duck session of the Legislature. It would also need the signature of Gov. Rick Snyder before becoming law.

It would apply only to central business districts with an improvement area such as a downtown development authority.

Mike Tobias, executive director of the volunteer group Michigan Alcohol Policy, said expanding the bar closing time from 2 a.m. is a mistake.

"There's going to be more alcohol-related fatalities and injuries," Tobias said. "People going to work in the morning are going to have to be worried about being hit by a drunk driver now."

But Nico Gatzaros, whose family owns Fishbones and the London Chop House in Detroit, told a Senate committee last year that extending bar hours would help make the city more competitive with cities such as Chicago and New York.

"In Detroit, we have so many things going on that this could help -- the casinos, hotels, limousine and taxi industries," Gatzaros testified.

Businesses would have to purchase an after-hours permit for $10,000 each year. Here's how that money would be distributed: 85% would go to local police departments; 10% would go to the Liquor Control Commission and 5% would go to the local unit of government.

"We're just giving people an option to do what they want with their businesses," said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe. "If they want to stay open later, it should be up to them, not the state."

Angela Wittrock, a spokeswoman for Senate Democrats, said the bill wasn't amended between the vote that failed and the vote that passed, but some members who weren't fully aware of the bill got more time to study it.

Tobias said he's unhappy about the way the bill, introduced more than a year ago, was pushed through committee with little notice Thursday and then passed by the full Senate only hours later.

"It's very difficult for everyday citizens to get involved in this kind of system, unless you have paid lobbyists to watch this stuff all the time," he said.

Bob Stevenson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police and the former police chief in Livonia, said his group opposes the bill for public safety reasons.

The change would result in more calls for police service at a time when police numbers in Michigan are about 4,000 below what they were at their peak, Stevenson said.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 517-372-8661, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.