LANSING, MI – For many years, it has seemed like the motto of the Michigan legislature could have been (with apologies to Humphrey Bogart in the Treasure of the Sierra Madre) “Ethics? We don’t need no (stinkin’) ethics.”
Nine years ago, the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity rated and graded Michigan, and gave the state a solid failing grade. F on legislative accountability; F on executive accountability, F on judicial accountability and lobbying disclosure.
Michigan and Idaho were then, and are still, the only states that failed to require government officials to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.
The corruption was blatant; once, when a lobbyist learned that the Michigan Secretary of State was going to require fuller disclosure of campaign donations, he signaled to a lawmaker to interrupt a committee hearing and stick in an amendment to prevent that.
Republicans continuously controlled at least one branch of state government from 1983 to 2023, and Democrats loudly blamed them for the lack of transparency. They indicated they would quickly change that, if they only had the power.
But when Democrats finally had complete control in January 2023, know what happened? Nothing, for more than an entire year.
Now, finally, that may be about to change … or will it? The legislature seems to be moving towards bills that would finally make both the governor’s office and the legislature subject to FOIA. The bills have been reported out of committee in the Senate, and seem headed for a floor vote and the governor’s signature.
You might say the lawmakers were finally shamed into it. Late last year, former Speaker of the House Rick Johnson, a Republican from a rural district, stood in front of a federal judge in Grand Rapids and mumbled “I am a corrupt politician.”
Johnson had pled guilty to taking more than $110,000 in bribes when he was chair of the board that issued medical marijuana licenses, plus expensive free meals and the services of a prostitute, who called him “Batman.” He got more than four years in prison.
That may finally have gotten things rolling. However, don’t count your transparency before you can see through it. There are whispers that the lawmakers may now try to slip exemptions through, shielding, for example, communications between employees.
There are encouraging signs: Senate Bills 669 and 670, were introduced jointly by Sen. Ed McBroom, a conservative Republican, and Sen. Jeremy Moss, a liberal Democrat. Having the bills start in the state senate was also symbolic, some said, because it historically has been the senate that was most reluctant to approve so-called sunshine legislation. “We need more open and transparent government,” State Sen. Sam Singh, (D-East Lansing) told reporters.
That would indeed be a good idea. Singh occupies a seat once held by the governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who has indicated she will sign whatever government transparency bills reach her desk.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the state house have introduced a package of seven bills that would require more disclosure on the part of lobbyists in addition to legislators and other public officials, reining in the use of “dark money” and more broadly defining who is counted as a lobbyist. They are calling their series of reforms BRITE, for “Bringing Reform in Integrity, Transparency and Ethics.”
What they aren’t mentioning is that when they tried to do something similar in the last session, it was torpedoed by their fellow Democrats, who insisted the reforms be drastically scaled down.
Nothing can happen until lawmakers return from a two-week spring break April 9, and realistically, nothing will happen till two special elections April 16 to fill vacancies in the state house of representatives. Democrats are favored to win both races; as of now, the chamber is locked in a 54-54 tie.
But while at least one lawmaker hailed all this as the start of a “new day in Lansing,” old habits die hard.
In recent years, the state’s auditor general, an entirely independent official who is appointed to a 8-year term, has turned up some abuses that have been embarrassing to the Whitmer administration. Those include billions wrongly paid out by the state unemployment agency, and indications that authorities reported fewer deaths in long-term care facilities than originally reported.
The auditor’s office also said there were indications that state government had failed to come up with a system to keep dangerous felons from getting jobs and working in schools. Democrats were silent about some of the charges, but said others, including the allegations about long-term deaths, were politically motivated.
What was Governor Whitmer’s reaction?
She has proposed cutting more than $8 million from the auditor general’s $27 million budget, and has declined any comment as to why.
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(Editor’s Note: A version of this column also appeared in the Toledo Blade.)
