by: John Clore | 3/25/2025 at 1:17 PM
Transparency for Thee, Not for Me: Lansing’s Hypocrisy on Government Accountability
LANSING – When I launched Michigan Initiatives and drafted the state’s first citizen-led transparency ballot measure—The Transparency Act—I thought we were doing something that would unite both sides of the aisle. After all, who doesn’t want more transparency from their government?
Apparently, most of Lansing.
Our proposal aimed to do what most other states already do: expand Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to cover both the Governor’s office and the state legislature. But despite transparency being a buzzword for politicians on the campaign trail, not one legislator was willing to back our effort.
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The Citizens’ Workaround to a Broken System
The Transparency Act had to jump through numerous bureaucratic hoops:
✔ Approval from the Secretary of State’s Bureau of Elections
✔ Endorsement by the Board of State Canvassers
✔ And most importantly—gathering enough citizen signatures to bypass a legislature that had refused for years to act on its own.
We fell short of the signature requirement in 2024. But what we revealed along the way was just as important as the initiative itself: Our lawmakers love to talk transparency, but they’ll never actually pass it.
The Hypocrisy Runs Deep
Publicly, many Michigan lawmakers have pretended to fight for FOIA reform. They introduce bills that die quietly in committee. They give interviews about “increasing accountability.” But when it came to supporting a real pathway to transparency—a ballot initiative they wouldn’t even have to vote on—they stayed silent.
Why? Because they knew this initiative had a real chance of passing. They knew the people would vote for it. And they knew it would end their ability to operate behind closed doors.
Instead of helping, they waited for us to fail. And in doing so, they preserved a system that shields themselves from scrutiny—all while pretending they support the very thing they blocked.
How Michigan Ranks: Last Place
Michigan is one of only two states where FOIA does not apply to the legislature or the governor’s office. According to the Center for Public Integrity, Michigan has earned an F grade for transparency and public access to government records.
Why It Matters
Without real transparency, citizens have no way to hold elected officials accountable. We can’t track how laws are written, how contracts are awarded, or how public money is spent. That creates the perfect environment for corruption, cronyism, and backroom deals—and we’ve already seen evidence of it in Michigan’s grant programs and corporate donor networks.
The Fight Isn’t Over
The Transparency Act wasn’t just a petition—it was a warning flare.
Our leaders are unwilling to regulate themselves. They’ll only act when the people force them to. That’s why ballot initiatives matter—and why we must keep trying.
Michigan residents deserve a government that answers to the people, not one that hides from them.
We’re not done yet…
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