Under SB 669 and 670 taken up Wednesday by the state Senate Oversight Committee, the governor’s office, lieutenant governor’s office and Legislature would be subject to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, allowing residents and journalists to seek out records to increase understanding and accountability in government.
Transparency
A new online system for processing requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for the Department of Elections was unveiled Tuesday by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
The bills implementing Proposal 1 would require state officials and candidates for office to annually submit financial disclosure reports showing sources of income, properties owned and other assets valued at over $1,000 and liabilities valued over $10,000.
Implementing government transparency reforms required under Proposal 1 passed by voters last year is time-sensitive. The proposal’s eventual passage came after a 2015 Center for Public Integrity state ranking of government transparency and accountability gave Michigan an “F” grade, ranking it worst in the nation.
A bill package of lobbying, financial disclosure and ethics reforms passed through the House with bipartisan support Wednesday. The 13 bills, House Bills 4680–4692, aim to close the revolving door for legislators and lobbyists, require lawmakers to disclose their financial information to a closed committee created by the Legislature, among other initiatives to raise the ethical standards in the Capitol.
In honor of Sunshine Week, Julie Stafford, president of the Michigan Press Association (MPA) Board of Directors and publisher of the Greenville Daily News, writes about why the idiom “No news is good news” is rarely true, and why good journalism is critical to democracy and a functioning society.
Mark Brewer, longtime Michigan elections lawyer and former Michigan Democratic Party chair, told the Advance Tuesday that a new ballot initiative expanding the state’s 1976 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) represents the best opportunity yet to achieve significant transparency.
Transparency and accountability have been buzzwords on both sides of the aisle in Michigan. Michigan scored an F in the Center for Public Integrity’s 2015 State Integrity Investigation and ranked worst in the country for state government accountability and transparency. Since then, dozens of measures have been introduced, but many haven’t been signed into law.