Sunshine Week Highlight: House Republican Transparency Wins

Lansing, MI – This Sunshine Week, we want to take an opportunity to highlight the Michigan House Republican transparency wins over the last year, starting with the Hall Ethics, Accountability, and Transparency plan (HEAT).

The HEAT plan kicked off with state Representative Tom Kunse’s bill requiring earmark transparency. Under the bill, legislators can no longer stuff pork projects into the budget unnoticed, and unaccountable organizations cannot receive millions of taxpayer dollars in secret. Now, every legislator has to sign their name to every single request they make, and each request is made available to the public before the budget process begins. The process also stops nonprofits without an address from receiving funds, and these organizations cannot be created after the fact.

Speaker Hall also took monumental steps to empower the House Oversight Committee to investigate abuses of state government and shed some sunshine on where state government is going wrong. Oversight Chair Jay DeBoyer has used that power to investigate some of the biggest abuses by government officials in Lansing, including Attorney General Dana Nessel’s efforts to keep her friend, Traci Kornak, out of trouble.

The speaker also made it a priority to close the revolving door between Lansing lobbyists and Lansing legislators. With a three-bill package, sponsored by Republican state Representatives Mark Tisdel, Dave Martin, and Jerry Neyer, the Michigan House voted overwhelmingly to prevent legislators from jumping ship at the end of their terms and joining the lobbying corps. 

“Unlike Lansing Democrats, Speaker Matt Hall and House Republicans aren’t just talking about government transparency,” said Gabe Butzke, a spokesperson for Michigan Forward Network. “Over the last year, they’ve done the work to make state government more transparent and hold Lansing officials accountable.”