Michigan is one step closer to ending secret, taxpayer-funded deals protected by gag orders after the state House on Feb. 25 approved two bills that aim to ban lawmakers from signing nondisclosure agreements related to taxpayer-funded projects.

Michigan Capitol Confidential reported in August 2022 that the state was ranked last nationwide for government transparency.

House Bill 4052, introduced by Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers, passed the House with 80 representatives in support and 28 opposed. House Bill 4053, introduced by Rep. Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, also passed, with a vote of 91 in support and 28 opposed. All Republicans voted yes.

“Corporate elitists who want special taxpayer-funded handouts oppose this legislation,” said Carra in an email to CapCon.

“I’d like to see this get signed into law to ensure transparency and openness from public officials."

Wegela told CapCon in an email that it is vital to hold lawmakers accountable for spending taxpayer money.

“Over the last several years, we have seen the increasing use of NDAs around projects that give millions of public tax dollars to multi-million and billion-dollar corporations,” said Wegela.

Legislators have, over the years, signed secret agreements to give taxpayer dollars to companies without public knowledge. The nondisclosure agreements were usually brokered with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation acting as the middleman.

The issue gained traction when David Sole, a Detroit activist, sued the MEDC, which brokered an agreement between General Motors and the Legislature to provide $3.8 billion in taxpayer funding to the company under cover of a nondisclosure agreement.

The Legislature created a $5,000 fine for lawmakers who violate agreements like the one between GM and select legislators.

The state Supreme Court asked the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation to file an a amicus brief on the lawsuit.

CapCon reported in July 2022 that the Michigan Supreme Court sided with Sole. The court ordered the company to divulge that the state agreed to pay $3.8 billion in tax credits over the agreement, which ends in 2030.

If enacted into law, the bills will help Michiganders monitor subsidy deals and hold lawmakers accountable for entering into bad deals, said Steve Delie, an expert on government transparency at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

“For years, Michiganders have been left in the dark about how the Legislature spends taxpayer dollars to support private industry,” Delie wrote in an email to CapCon.

A recent study by the Mackinac Center found that only one of every 11 jobs promised by Michigan politicians when announcing subsidy deals actually gets created.

A Midland resident has sued Midland Public Schools over charges associated with record requests, according to a lawsuit filed on July 2, 2024.

Renita Bonadies has paid more than $1,000 for public school records over four years, including meeting agendas that schools typically distribute for free, she told Michigan Capitol Confidential in a Zoom interview.

Bonadies asked the district for six months of meeting agendas. The district billed her $114.68 on Dec. 14, 2023, but a June 12, 2024, response raised the cost to $305.62.

The fee increase was meant to stop her from getting public documents, Bondadies told CapCon.

She’s attended school board meetings for almost four years and also frequently attends county commission meetings. Bonadies moved to Midland 13 years ago.

“Our hill to die on is to hold public servants accountable for what they were elected to do,” Bondadies said.

Midland Public Schools doesn’t comment on pending litigation, district spokesperson Katie Guyer told CapCon in an email.

Bonadies has no children currently attending the school, but her parents were schoolteachers.

The school isn’t being transparent with record requests, Bonadies said. She believes the school is withholding an email about her, she said.

“How honest are they when they give us FOIA results, and what is it the public can do about what’s going on?” Bondadies said.

The lawsuit filed in the 42nd Circuit Court for Midland County is in the discovery process now, according to Thomas J. Lambert, an attorney representing Bondadies.

“If public bodies charge a fee, any fee, a dollar, it increases the likelihood that the request will be abandoned,” Lambert said in a Zoom interview.

The parties could either settle the case or take it to trial.

The lawsuit asks the court to award Bondadies attorney’s fees and to order the district to process the record request.

Michiganders who aren’t incarcerated can file record requests with local and state governments to review public documents. Some agencies charge a fee to find and redact sensitive information in the documents. Typically, agencies charge about $1 per page. CapCon filed more than 150 record requests in 2024 to break stories. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that certain public school curricula can stay hidden from parents, CapCon reported.