In 2023, transparency moved into the Overton Window in Michigan. Lawmakers were slow to catch up.
Voters approved Proposal 1 last November. The measure called for shorter term limits. It also required lawmakers to pass a bill mandating financial disclosures for officeholders and candidates for state offices: representative, senator, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
The people of Michigan have a clear interest in knowing the financial ties of the politicians who represent them. In 2022 and the years prior, we could only guess. That will change in 2024.
It took 2.8 million Michiganders voting in unison to arrive at this point. Even after that vote, lawmakers were slow to act. Facing a constitutional Dec. 31 deadline, they didn’t submit a financial disclosure bill until October. The earliest versions of the bill had no teeth, only a $1,000 fine for outright falsehoods and a $500 fine for non-filers. Whatever transparency comes from Proposal 1 will be hard-earned and require vigilance. Legislators didn’t embrace transparency on their own. The public dragged them kicking and screaming.
That’s not to claim victory. Transparency is not a native impulse for Michigan lawmakers. The public will have to train them. And CapCon will be there to assist by telling the state’s residents what their lawmakers are doing.
Consider Michigan Senate Bill 271. This bill to require utilities to derive 100% of their energy from so-called clean sources by 2040 went through eight revisions and gained 30 pages between its introduction in April and its November passage in the Senate.
But the public only had access to the original bill during that seven-month debate.
Some lawmakers only got the revised bill 15 minutes before a hearing of the Senate Energy, Communications, and Technology Committee, which lasted a mere 16 minutes. This means most of the discussion on a bill to transform Michigan’s energy future took place behind closed doors and out of the public eye. That’s not transparent.
All told, 2023 was a good year for transparency in Michigan. But we the people must demand more and be vigilant until we get it. Demands got us this far, after years of asking nicely.
