I appreciate some of the changes made by our colleagues in the House in the H-3 substitute, but they still don’t go near far enough to ensure the sunshine and transparency that the people of Michigan need, want, and deserve. My amendment would require that an official or candidate covered under this act report the name, mailing address, and employer identification number of any political organization or social welfare organization organized under section 527 or section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code for which they or their spouse are listed as an officer or director. One such group supporting a current serving statewide official accepted $6.5 million in just one year. This included an individual donation of $857,000 from a single undisclosed donor, and another single undisclosed donation of $400,000. This is commonly called dark money.
The people of Michigan deserve to know about these accounts and the potential influence they place on their elected officials. My amendment is common-sense transparency. It’s a measure that will provide additional and sorely-needed sunshine on the ownership of these accounts which are often used by officials and candidates outside the view of traditional campaign finance reporting and without the most basic transparency. This is huge loophole that’s helped Michigan earn the grade of F—failing. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
Senator Singh’s statement is as follows:
I’d like to thank the House for sending us this H-3 substitute on Senate Bill No. 613 and an H-2 on Senate Bill No. 614 because it strengthened what we had sent over to them. I want to just remind people that this was a joint effort between the Democratic caucus and the Republican caucus. I’d like to thank the Republican leader from the 20th District and the majority leader from the 29th District for coming together in this bipartisan fashion. I want to thank the staffs of both the policy of the Republican caucus staff and the Democratic caucus staff. I want to also thank the legal counsels for both the Republican caucus and the Democratic caucus for putting together a compromise that could get done in this chamber, also pass the House, and get signed by the Governor.
I want to just acknowledge that we have increased, with this substitute coming over, increased the transparency for spouses to make sure that if they have contracts and other relationships with the state, that those are also taken a look at and disclosed within the forms. I remind people that we also have a section that will allow for people who want to go beyond what we have here today can do so in a voluntary fashion, and I know many of us will utilize that. But I do know that when you have legislation like this, you sometimes have to take the art of the possible. I want to thank both caucuses for coming together.
I do want to acknowledge that the Senator from the 38th District and the Senator from the 7th District will have bills read in today that will put the Legislature, as well as the Governor, under FOIA. As I’ve said as the chair of oversight, that I am willing and looking forward to taking a look at the lobbying act and making changes, but also would be willing to take a look at non-lobbying agents and how they interact with us as well. I look forward to taking up that type of legislation that I think will strengthen the entire part of this conversation when we get into the new year. So I want to thank everyone for this bipartisan effort in both chambers and I look forward to improving this as well as other disclosure items in the near future.
Senate Bill No. 614, entitled
A bill to require certain candidates for state elective office to file financial disclosure reports; to create a financial disclosure form; to prescribe penalties and civil sanctions; and to provide for the powers and duties of certain state and local governmental officers and entities.
The House of Representatives has substituted (H-2) the bill.
The House of Representatives has passed the bill as substituted (H-2) and ordered that it be given immediate effect.
The question being on concurring in the substitute made to the bill by the House,
The substitute was concurred in, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: