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Follow CapCon on XPork Friday: Lawmakers give grants but are unwilling to explain them
Elected officials, grant recipients, are silent on the taxpayer funds.
Henryk Sadura - Fotolia
Select nonprofit organizations won big in the 2023 state budget.
Dozens of organizations were awarded tens of millions in taxpayer dollars, with legislators offering no clear parameters for granting the money. And when CapCon asked members of the Senate Appropriations Committee about the process of determining who got grants and for how much, they did not respond.
Requests for the grants, often labeled as district pork projects, typically come from senators or representatives seeking money for specific recipients. Some of the organizations receiving the money do not have a proven track record of financial responsibility. Sometimes this is because they are new. Other times, they fail to file an IRS 990 form. The 990 is a financial statement required by the IRS, and available as a public record.
- Want to search IRS 990 forms, for non-profits you know? Go here.
The lack of transparency in the state’s budget process is made more obvious when taxpayer dollars are awarded to an organization that’s hard to reach, such as The National Association of Yemeni Americans. The organization was granted $500,000, according to budget documents.
Good luck finding out what that money is for. While large amounts of money flow through the grant-giving process, recipients and lawmakers tend to avoid answering questions about why the money was granted, or what it will be used for.
The Yemeni association’s website is no longer is available, and it has posted nothing to its Facebook page since 2021. An email CapCon sent to the association came back as undeliverable.
A man reached at the association’s phone number told a CapCon reporter, “Go do your fishing in a different area.”
Non-profit Enterprise At Work, which uses the acronym NEW, received a $650,000 grant from the state budget. NEW’s total revenue in 2019 was $1.9 million, with salaries and benefits totaling just over $1 million
NEW says on its website that it can achieve its vision by “working together to dismantle systems of oppression and build resilience. By cultivating deep relationships and powerful learning communities.” It also invites the partnership of grass roots activists, nonprofits, businesses and institutions committed to social change.
NEW did not respond a request for comment.
The United Methodist Community House in Grand Rapids was listed in the 2023 budget as receiving a grant of $2 million.
In an email to CapCon, the organization says it has not been formally notified of the grant. The budget was finalized in July.
The nonprofit states on its website it has been open since 1902 and serves children, youth, adults, seniors and families in the surrounding neighborhood. It received $744,881 in government grants in 2020, according to the most recently available 990 form for it. Salaries and benefits totaled $1.6 million.
The Saint Mark Community Outreach Center in Flint received nonprofit status in 2019 but has yet to file a 990 form. It was given $500,000 from taxpayers in the latest budget. The organization says on its website that it has the best food give-away in the city. The organization’s community events, the website says, “provide help, entertainment, and resources” including suicide prevention awareness.
The nonprofit did not respond to request for comment.
The Arab Americans Civil Rights League was awarded $250,000 in the budget. It has not filed a 990 form since 2017, when its revenue total was $78,631.
Its mission is to protect the civil rights of ethnic minorities. It promotes awareness and says it dispels “negative stereotypes associated with Arab-Americans.”
The nonprofit says it will “serve as the driving force charged with uniting and channeling the constituency’s desire to effect meaningful change.”
The organization did not respond to a request for comment.
CapCon emailed a request for comment to Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It also sent a request to committee members Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte; Sen. Jon Bumstead, R-North Muskegon; Sen. Kim LaSata, R-Niles; and Sen. John Bizon, R-Battle Creek. No senator replied.
James David Dickson contributed to this story.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.
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FOIA exemptions for Michigan governor, lawmakers breed distrust
Transparency demands that FOIA apply to the governor and the legislature
You see it almost daily on social media and in the comments section of news reports. You hear it in conversation at the coffee shop. People attribute the worst of humanity to those they differ from in public policy and politics. We live in a low-trust culture.
Often there is a rumor of a politician behaving in a shady manner, and the chatter starts immediately. “Who owns him?” “Someone has dirt on her.” And off we go on the conspiracy train.
It is easy to blame and dismiss people as tin-hat conspiracy theorists, uneducated, or simply stupid. Often, though, the problem isn’t the person who wants so desperately to ensure that corruption is not occurring behind the curtain. In these uncertain times, everyone wants to know the deck is not stacked against them and that there is a level playing field.
In Michigan, much of the blame for worries about corruption and conspiracy is baked into state law. Michigan is one of only two states that does not apply Freedom of Information Act requirements to legislators or the governor.
Chad Livengood addressed this in a Detroit News column and gave an example: If a lobbyist emails a Detroit City Council member to ask for that person’s vote on a real estate deal, the email is subject to FOIA. But if the same lobbyist asks a state representative or senator for a vote on a tax subsidy, the public official is not required to divulge the message, even if asked in a FOIA request.
Lack of transparency breeds distrust. Distrust produces speculation, and when speculation spreads from one person to another, it leads to rumors and conspiracy theories. When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was campaigning for her first term, she declared she would work to ensure full transparency in state government.
That never happened. When Whitmer locked Michigan down, closing entire industries and forcing schoolchildren to stay home, away from peers, she said we should trust the science. She told us that officials were using science and data to decide what to do. What science, and which metrics? To this day, we don’t know. She won’t say. And that’s a problem.
When the Mackinac Center for Public Policy asked the governor’s office for this information, officials would not disclose it. Because Whitmer’s office is not subject to FOIA and declined to be fully transparent, we will probably never receive all the information. That would change if the Legislature passed a bill to require FOIA for itself and the governor, and Whitmer signed it.
Michael Van Beek, the Mackinac Center’s director of research, wrote in May 2020 about the confusion that comes from a lack of transparency:
The Detroit Free Press reported in March about the governor’s promise of open records, which goes unfulfilled.
Imagine how much better served Michiganders would be if we had the facts in front of us. This is why CapCon fights for the truth and asks residents of Michigan to join the fight. Legislators and Whitmer bragged for the past two years about their bipartisan efforts to create and sign into effect nearly 1,000 laws.
And yet, not one of those laws addressed these officials’ commitment to being transparent with the people who entrust them with power, provide their paychecks and vote them into office.
January 2023 is a new term for the Legislature. There will be new representation, and we call on those in service to us to make good on the promise of open government.
Give the people of Michigan the opportunity to be fully informed in the decision-making process. If you want to limit rumors, conspiracy theories and gossip, this would be a good start.
CapCon will continue its mission to hold Michigan government accountable to the people and report when it falls short.
Jamie A. Hope is assistant managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email her at hope@mackinac.org.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.