Mike Bouchard became the first GOP candidate for governor to campaign on right-to-work legislation when he announced Wednesday in Grand Rapids that he would support it.

Twenty-two states have right-to-work laws that allow employees to decide whether to join a union. Michigan has a union shop provision allowing employers and unions to negotiate rules that mandate that employees join a union or pay union dues and fees.

"Twenty two states have a right-to-work law and their unemployment rate is around eight-percent. In Michigan it's 13.6-percent. Companies are going elsewhere and taking their jobs and our kids with them. That has to end," the Oakland County sheriff said in a press release. "Someone shouldn't be forced to join a union to get a job. It'll be my job as governor to create an environment that fosters job creation and prosperity. One way to do that is making Michigan a Right to Work state."

"The union bosses and special interests may be upset, and will probably target me, but I'm ready and willing to take on the tough challenges to turn our state around," Bouchard said.

Bouchard's campaign hopes this will improve his standing in the polls. In the more recent EPIC/MRA poll from June, Bouchard was third in the GOP primary. Mike Cox had a 36 percent favorable rating from those polled, while Pete Hoekstra was second at 35 percent and Bouchard was third at 33 percent.

"I think that his backbone to take a stand on this issue ... will separate him," said Ted Prill, campaign manager for Bouchard.

Economists David Littmann of the Mackinac Center and Don Grimes of the University of Michigan have said that for the state to compete for manufacturing jobs in the United States, right-to-work must be a part of the plan.

"This shows that RTW has achieved a level of salience that makes high-profile support of it appealing to an anxious candidate looking to break from the pack in a five-way GOP primary election," Jack McHugh, senior legislative analyst at the Mackinac Center For Public Policy wrote in an e-mail. "Specifically, at least one experienced Michigan politician now thinks that things have been so bad for so long that voters here will reward a candidate who loudly calls for RTW."

A fear that the "stealth unionization" of home-based day care workers could just be the start of a bigger effort was acknowledged in court on Tuesday by a union lawyer.

Patrick Wright, senior legal counsel for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, had said months ago that doctors that accept Medicaid, grocers that take food stamps and landlords that take housing assistance could be the next groups targeted in state efforts to unionize anyone who gets state subsidies.

The Mackinac Center has a lawsuit that it has appealed to the state Supreme Court about the state unionizing roughly 40,000 home-based day care workers. The state also unionized another 40,000 home workers for elderly and disabled. Both groups were unionized because they accepted state subsidies for low-income clients.

The issue came up in court when the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation was in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan on Tuesday to keep its suit from being dismissed. The National Right to Work is representing home-based day care workers on the national level.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jonker asked union lawyer John West if the state could unionize doctors in a similar way to the day care workers if the doctors accepted Medicaid.

West, a Washington, D.C., lawyer, told the judge at first it was a "slippery slope."

But shortly later, West told the judge that unionization of any group that accepted state subsidies would be within the state's authority if it had "added value" to the state or the public's interest.

West said if the state could show added "value," then "that could be imposed on anyone."

Jonker didn't dismiss the suit.

Michigan's Freedom of Information Act requires that the politicians running local governments tell taxpayers who has been hired to work for them and how much those persons are being paid. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick — made infamous in part because of his "friends and family" hiring policy — had to disclose this information. And because of a similar federal law that requires timely reporting of staff names and salaries by the Congress and White House, so does his mother, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit.

But if you're the governor of Michigan or one of the lawmakers running either chamber of the Michigan Legislature, such rules literally do not apply to you. This is because of a little-known secrecy perk in FOIA, passed by one state Legislature in 1976 and signed by then-Gov. William Milliken, that has allowed all subsequent state legislatures and governors the option of hiring public employees with public dollars and hiding the details from public scrutiny.

If any of the five men running on the GOP side to become Michigan's next governor win the job, this shroud of secrecy could be lifted. 

At issue is House Bill 4613, sponsored by state Rep. Pete Lund, R-Shelby Township, which would amend FOIA, lift the exemption, and require the Legislature and governor to turn over this information. Last week, Michigan Capitol Confidential asked each of the five GOP candidates for governor and both Democrats whether they would sign the Lund bill if it came to their desk. All of the Republicans replied that they would, but each of the Democrat campaigns did not reply to repeated requests for comment.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's office has repeatedly refused to release this information. In 2008, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Show Michigan the Money transparency project asked the governor to place the names and salaries of all state employees on a state website. The Officer of the Governor replied that online public access to the names and salaries of state employees would provide "little value to the taxpayer." On July 7 of this year, replying to the most recent request from MichCapCon.com for the names and salaries of their taxpayer-financed staff, the Office of the Governor sent a notice quoting FOIA's exemption:

Michigan's FOIA provides public access to certain public records of public bodies. However, the definition of public body "does not include the governor or lieutenant governor, the executive office of the governor or lieutenant governor, or employees thereof." See MCL  15.232(d). Accordingly, this office is not subject to the provisions of the FOIA.

For many years, and despite the fact that they are not required to do so under FOIA, the Michigan Legislature has customarily released the names and salaries of its employees to anyone who submits a written request. Such lists are often requested by and circulated amongst Legislative staff, curious to know the salaries of one another. MichCapCon made such a request at the end of June and received documents listing employee names and salaries from both the Michigan House and Senate within a week, and at no charge. 

These lists will soon be made available on the MichCapCon website.

Michigan House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, is one of the two Democrat candidates for governor and, as House Speaker, is the person responsible for allowing the House employee list to be released to MichCapCon. Like all other local government executive officers, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, the other Democrat candidate for governor, is required to release comparable lists of his employees and their salaries.

In addition to being asked whether they would support the Lund bill's repeal of the FOIA exemption, each of the candidates for governor were also asked whether they would support putting this information on a publicly-available state website, making it unnecessary for curious citizens to file a FOIA request to get at the information. All of the Republicans said that they would support this disclosure. (As noted above, the Democrat candidates did not respond to MichCapCon's request for a comment.)

Early last year, shortly after being sworn into office as freshman lawmakers, GOP state Reps. Tom McMillin of Rochester Hills and Justin Amash of Cascade Township became the first two politicians in Michigan history to provide this information voluntarily on a state website. Shortly thereafter, several other House members followed their example.  

As this was happening, Lund, also a rookie lawmaker, introduced the bill that would abolish the special FOIA reporting exemption.

"This is just the type of open government that we need," said Lund, when informed that his bill had the support of every Republican running for governor. "There is nothing better than 10 million pairs of eyes making sure [politicians] are doing what is right and not wasting their money."

~~~~~

In an interview with the Gongwer News Service that took place after publication of this article, Virg Bernero stated the following:

"As Governor I will ask lawmakers to revoke the FOIA exemption for the governor's office as well as the Legislature. The intent of FOIA is to make the operations and spending of government as transparent as possible. The exemptions for the governor's office and Legislature only serve to hide this information from the people of Michigan." 

See also:

Cronyism easier to conceal in state capital than in Washington or Detroit