We are just about done with 2024, yet here in Michigan, we have a lame-duck session of the state legislature that has gone longer than usual but has not accomplished much of anything. Yet it could have, and It would have been pretty damn cool and useful to the citizens of the Great Lake State.

One key issue was Freedom of Information Act reform — which, when I say "reform," what I mean is we can't check up on the governor and the legislature because they are currently EXEMPT from such laws. They could have changed that but decided not to.

Democrats currently control the governorship with Gretchen Whitmer, the state house with Democrat House Speaker Joe Tate, and the State Senate Majority Leader, who is also a Democrat, Winnie Brinks. 

All of them choked on this common sense idea to make themselves transparent to the taxpayers of this state. 

How I know this is because I read all about it right HERE and sat utterly gobsmacked about how fellow Democrats were a bit peeved at their leadership on this...

Currently, Michigan is one of two states in the nation where the governor and the Legislature are exempt from policies that force other agencies and offices, funded by taxpayers, to hand over 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, township offices, city mayors and local police agencies.

For a decade, House Democrats — in the minority from 2011 through 2022 and unable to set the agenda — championed the transparency reform. In a February 2015 press release, then-state Rep. Brandon Dillon, a Democrat from Grand Rapids, labeled the proposal a "matter of basic fairness and accountability."

This term, the Democrat-controlled Senate voted 36-2 in favor of similar bills in June, sending them to the House, where Tate and majority Democrats had five months to get them to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk.

But Tate decided to refer the bills to the Government Operations Committee, which hadn't handled similar proposals in the past, instead of the Ethics and Oversight Committee, which included members who wanted to quickly take up transparency-related measures.

Rep. Erin Byrnes, D-Dearborn, chairwoman of the Ethics and Oversight Committee, said she had also faced "roadblocks" in attempts to hold hearings on a separate set of transparency bills introduced by House Democrats in March.

"I was trying to work through the speaker's office to be able to hold those committee hearings, and I was told to wait," Byrnes told The Detroit News.

I wonder what "roadblocks" Rep. Bynes was speaking of that House Speaker Tate put up for her?

I can't think of anything that elected officials who are paid by taxpayer money would want to block. Just imagine that the very people who are paid with the people's money do not want the people to see how that money is in other areas via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Weird, right?

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So, let's give credit where credit is due. 

That there are Democrats interested in passing legislation related to this is amazing to me. 

Now that we know the Republicans will be taking over the legislature — House and Senate — in January, this should be one of the first things that they send directly to Governor Whitner's desk with the help of the very same Democrats who were blocked here. From what I have observed, Whitmer has offered zero leadership for the people in her party who were encouraging this and were willing to work with Republicans on this common-sense legislation. 

The governor could have encouraged Speaker Tate to be bi-partisan and let the people gather as much information as they wanted to see regarding how government money is being spent.

Just like when Governor Gretch was running the state during COVID and all the fine Michiganians who were affected by her policies could NOT find out how it all broke down because she and the legislature are protected from releasing that information. 

Nifty gig if you can get it.

Hopefully, that will change with the new legislature next year.