Page 22 - Progress Michigan News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Group details ballot bill to open gov, lawmakers to FOIA By DAVID EGGERT Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Advocates for open government on Tuesday unveiled the specifics of their ballot proposal that would open Michigan's governor and lawmakers to public-records requests. The state is one of only two to wholly exempt the governor's office from the Freedom of Information Act and among eight where legislators are explicitly exempt. The liberal advocacy group Progress Michigan will have to collect about 340,000 valid voter signatures to send the bill to the Republican-led Legislature, wh...

Michigan official wants governor, lawmakers subject to FOIA By ANNA LIZ NICHOLS The Associated Press/Report for America LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan's secretary of state is aiming to have Michigan join most of the rest of the country in expanding public information requests to the governor and Legislature, she announced during a news conference Monday. Kicking off Sunshine Week by laying out a government transparency plan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson asked the Legislature to take up the measures. Michigan is one of two states that exempts the governor's office from Freedom of Inform...

The Michigan Legislature is moving closer to adopting a package that would place lawmakers and the governor under open records laws, but it’s not enough to

Michigan's governor and Legislature would fall under the state's open records law under a new initiative planned by Progress Michigan.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson unveiled a legislative agenda aimed at increasing government transparency Monday.  Her announcement came at the beginning of Sunshine Week, an initiative of the News Leaders Association to promote open government, and followed the discovery of confidentiality clauses contained in separation agreements between former state officials and the governor's office that have sparked calls for increased transparency. A 2015 study by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity ranked Michigan last in the country when it comes to state ethics an...