Dear neighbor,

Below you will find legislative updates from the state Capitol that are important to the residents of western Oakland County. You also will find important updates and communications on my website: SenatorJimRunestad.com.

Serving you,

Senator Jim Runestad
23rd State Senate District

To accomplish this transparency, I have introduced a series of legislation that would greatly improve Michigan’s last in the nation grade for transparency within state governments — 50 out of 50! You may even ask yourself, aren’t these already in law? Well, no they are not.

In the first package of bills I introduced, is a bill that would prohibit the spouse of a currently serving legislator from registering as a lobbyist (Senate Bill 221). Another bill would require what is known as a “cooling off period” from the time a legislator leaves office until they can take a job as a lobbyist. It would be three years off for former committee chairs and two years off for non-committee chairs (SB 222).

The last two bills in this package (SB 223 and SB 224) would subject both the Legislature and the executive office to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and what is known as the Legislative Open Records Act (LORA). Currently, there is absolutely no transparency!

Now let’s turn to our essentially monopolistic utility companies in Michigan. My bill requires the reporting of all the financial contributions they make to candidates, elective officials, political party committees and ballot question committees (SB 296).

SB 297 and SB 298 would require the Michigan Public Service Commission board members to be elected statewide by the people. Right now, the governor appoints these individuals. When these bureaucrats no longer have their appointments to hide behind and must answer to the voters, they will be more motivated to hold the state’s utility providers accountable. Accountability inspires accountability!

The people of Michigan deserve to know where their money is being spent and who is benefiting from those dollars. At the very least, in SB 319 and SB 320 that I introduced, a legislator must be willing to put his or her name on any special request, certify they or immediate family members would not benefit from the spending allocation, and include documentation from the community in support of that funding. This would greatly change (and improve) the process that currently takes place in Lansing! No more 3 a.m. deals that nobody has read!

These may seem like commonsense reforms, but again, they are not in law in Michigan! It is long past time that we change this! It is never too late to do the right thing!

Michigan’s individual income tax rate will fall to 4.05% — down from the current 4.25% — for the 2023 tax year. While this is a positive step for Michigan taxpayers, it does not go far enough. I believe the tax reduction should be permanent — despite Attorney General Dana Nessel’s recent opinion stating it should be temporary.

Democrats did not want this rate reduction at all. They have tried to rob hardworking families of this tax relief even though the state has a $9 billion surplus on the books. Republicans have fought for this rate reduction so that you can keep more of your hard-earned money.

Former Gov. Rick Snyder and lawmakers who approved the 2015 law say the income tax trigger was supposed to be permanent. Now Democrats are trying to change the rules because they want higher taxes to pay for corporate welfare and other unsustainable government programs. This fight for long-lasting tax relief is not over. Michiganders deserve to be able to keep more of what they earn.

To make matters worse, the Democrats just passed a record shattering $80 billion budget. Democrats have been on a spending spree – blowing through a $9 billion dollar surplus in only five months with only $200 million spent on the roads.

It was also lacking transparency! I put in SB 319 and SB 320 to require 48 hours public notice to create more transparency on budget bills. The Senate Democrats’ lead sponsor on transparency bills, Sen. Jeremy Moss said that they don’t need a bill and they’ll just do it through normal budget procedures. What do those procedures look like? Well, if you are a Republican on the Appropriations Committee, you’ll have 14 minutes to read the bill prior to committee. Hardly a model of transparency! Obviously, these bills are needed for actual transparency!

Senate Democrats have spent a record amount of money and did everything they could to prevent an automatic rollback of your income tax. When that didn’t work and it looked like you were going to get your automatic rollback, they turned to the attorney general who is trying to rule it’s one year only when the nonpartisan fiscal office and the leaders and legislators who sponsored the bill all declared it was in perpetuity. The people of Michigan deserve better!

When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer first ran for office, she released a 10-point “sunshine plan” that was supposed to make state government “more open, transparent and accountable to Michigan taxpayers.”

Among other things, she promised to promote financial disclosure for legislators, to toughen lobbying rules, and to open her own office to Freedom of Information Act requests — with or without the Legislature’s help. Legislative Democrats called for the same, promising voters good government reforms.

And yet, nothing has changed. It’s another political promise that has proven to be nothing but empty lip service.

If anything, we’ve seen the governor and Lansing Democrats take steps in the opposite direction when it comes to transparency, steps that have taken our state further into darkness, and away from the openness of sunshine.

We’ve seen taxpayer-funded hush money payments made to department directors, COVID-19 nursing home death data hidden from the public, possible cover-ups by Child Protective Services, secret corporate welfare deals, shady spending projects, secret bills voted on without any committee hearings, protections for government whistleblowers vetoed, hypocritical gimmicks to avoid voter referendums, and more maneuvers that violate the very idea of an honest government.

So, what gives?

It is often more convenient to blame someone else for not getting something done, and that is especially true when it comes to this governor’s lack of effort on transparency. But now that she and her fellow Democrats have complete control, there are no excuses left. The governor can’t blame anyone else for failing to do what she promised she would do.

After talking about it for years and years, Democrats finally have their chance to implement good government reforms under the banner of transparency. But we are now four months into the term, and Democrats have yet to even introduce promised Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act bills.

Every term, I have introduced legislation that would make our Legislature and our state government more open to the public. Presently, Senate Bills 221-224 would prevent former legislators from becoming lobbyists for at least two years after leaving office and would prevent the spouses of legislators from registering as lobbyists. This package would also expand FOIA and the Legislative Open Records Act to apply to both the governor and the Legislature. These are simple, sensible bills would make big strides in making government more transparent.

I have also introduced bills to open up Child Protective Services to limited legislative inquiry and legislation to provide more transparency and accountability from our state’s largest utility providers.

When it comes to our state’s spending and appropriations processes, we have an obligation to be clearer about how we use taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. That is why I am introducing legislation that would prevent the state from spending any money on a project unless we know who is requesting the funding, how it will be spent, and why the taxpayers should be paying for it.

Again and again, I have presented commonsense changes that both sides of the aisle should be able to support.

Republicans and Democrats alike have failed the Michigan people for years. Leadership in both parties are responsible for Michigan’s consistently failing grades when it comes to transparency.

But there are those of us who are still trying to make our government more open and honest. I remain willing to work with Democratic leadership — or anyone, for that matter — to get these reforms passed.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle just have to use their power to do what they promised they would do, and work with us to pass these bills. It is past time to act.

The governor and Democrats have talked the talk on transparency long enough.

Now we get to find out if they are willing to walk the walk. I am ready to walk with them.

This column appeared in the April 14, 2023 edition of The Detroit News.