A bill in the Michigan Senate would create a database of all agreements reached by the governor.
Currently, the governor can make Memorandums of Understanding, or MOU’s, without legislative approval - so long as they don’t use taxpayer money. The Gordie Howe Bridge between Detroit and Canada is the result of one such agreement.
Republican State Senator Mike Shirkey is the bill sponsor. He said the problem is currently there’s no clear way to check what deals previous Governors have made - and no way to know if those agreements are still in effect.
“This would provide the opportunity for a new governor to go to a repository and say take a look at the last two years of MOU’s and see if there’s anything in there we really like or anything that’s inconsistent with our philosophy and we might want to stop it.”
Shirkey said governors would be able to end previous agreements made by governors - but that’s always been true.
He said MOU’s made under Jennifer Granholm with Canada were, for some time, nowhere to be found.
“They were nowhere to be found on the Michigan side or the Canadian and we had to go all the way to Great Britain and they were ultimately able to produce them and share them with us. That’s an example of why I think these are important.”
Shirkey said the database of governor’s MOU’s, or Memorandums of Understanding, would also be searchable by the public.
He said the bill would not retroactively log gubernatorial agreements because most MOU’s will be too difficult to find.
Shirkey said he expects the bill will have bipartisan support.