We are almost done with 2024, but here in Michigan we have a lame session of the state legislature that lasted longer than usual but didn’t accomplish much. Still, it could have, and it would have been pretty damn frosty and useful to the citizens of the Great Lake State.
A central issue was reforming the Freedom of Information Act. When I say “reform” what I mean is that we cannot control the Governor and Legislature because they are currently EXEMPT from such laws. They could have changed that, but chose not to.
Democrats currently control the governorship with Gretchen Whitmer, the state House with Democratic House Speaker Joe Tate, and state Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, also a Democrat.
They all choked on this common sense idea of being see-through to the taxpayers of this state.
How I know this is because I read everything correctly HERE and sat completely dumbfounded at how upset the other Democrats were with her leadership on this issue…
Currently, Michigan is one of two states in the country where the governor and legislature are exempt from policies that force other taxpayer-funded agencies and departments to release documents to the public. The transparency standard excludes the governor’s office but applies to the offices of the attorney general and secretary of state, as well as other state departments, municipal offices, city mayors and local police departments.
For a decade, House Democrats — in the minority from 2011 to 2022 and unable to set the agenda — championed transparency reform. In a press release from February 2015Then-Rep. Brandon Dillon, a Democrat from Grand Rapids, called the proposal “a question of fundamental fairness and accountability.”
This term, the Democratic-controlled Senate voted 36-2 in favor of similar bills in Junesent it to the House, where Tate and majority Democrats had five months to get it to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk.
But Tate decided to send the bills to the Government Operations Committee, which had not considered similar proposals in the past, rather than the Ethics and Oversight Committee, which included members who wanted to take quick transparency-related action.
Rep. Erin Byrnes, D-Dearborn, chairwoman of the Ethics and Oversight Committee, said she also encountered “hurdles” in attempts to hold hearings on a separate package of transparency legislation that House Democrats introduced in March.
“I tried to work through the speaker’s office to be able to hold these committee hearings and was told to wait,” Byrnes told The Detroit News.
I wonder what “hurdles” Rep. Bynes was talking about that House Speaker Tate put in place for her?
I can’t think of anything that elected officials paid with taxpayer dollars want to block. Imagine that the very people who are paid with the people’s money don’t want the people to see what that money is like in other areas through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Strange, right?
Harry Enten says: “No light at the end of the tunnel” for the Democrats, no real heir apparent
Gretchen Whitmer finally explains her chip-feeding video, OnlyFans style, and it makes no sense at all
So let’s give credit where credit is due.
The fact that there are Democrats interested in passing legislation on this is astonishing to me.
Now that we know Republicans will take over the legislature – House and Senate – in January, this should be one of the first things they send straight to Gov. Whitner’s desk with the lend a hand of the same Democrats who were blocked here. From what I observed, Whitmer did not provide any leadership to the people in her party who supported this and were willing to work with Republicans on this common sense legislation.
The governor could have encouraged Speaker Tate to be bipartisan and let people gather as much information about how government money is being spent as they wanted.
Just like when Gov. Gretch ran the state during the COVID-19 crisis and all the good citizens of Michigan affected by her policies CANNOT figure out how it all failed because she and the Legislature are protected from making that information public .
Great gig if you can get it.
Hopefully that will change with the novel legislative session next year.
