State has the fourth highest rate for FOIA fees in the country
By Lee Marentette
MPA/Trott Foundation Fellowship
A decade ago, Michigan was dead last in national government transparency rankings.
While it has made some improvements, Michigan, alongside Massachusetts, remains one of two where both the governor and the legislature are exempt from public records laws.
The Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows access to most records of public bodies. The most recent legislation aimed at changing FOIA was rejected last month by House Speaker Matt Hall, in favor of reforms to publicly disclose legislative earmarks before the state budget was passed.
Moves like Hall’s raise the question of where we stand nationally when it comes to providing access to government records.
Collaborative journalism nonprofit MuckRock assists in filing and tracking public information requests across the country. Their website provides up to date statistics on each state, which can help gauge where Michigan ranks today.
Statewide, 21% of requests come with a fee attached, which is the fourth highest rate in the country; Oregon is the highest at 27.6%.
The average cost of a public records request in Michigan is nearly $5,200, which is the 13th highest in the nation; California is highest at $31,565, but only requests fees 2.7% of the time.
University of Florida’s Freedom of Information Project Director David Cuillier has spent two decades researching government information. A report he authored in 2019 using MuckRock data found a correlation between better transparency and stricter provisions, particularly short response deadlines and mandatory fee-shifting.
Michigan’s law contains both of these, as well as very high fees for violations. Possibly due to these factors, Michigan does rank among the middle of the states in requestor success rate at 34%; Alabama has the worst success rate at 15.8%.
However, expensive fees still present a significant challenge to citizens seeking public records.
While the overall success rate may be high in Michigan, the cost may dissuade many requestors from seeking information in the first place.
Cuillier suggested every state should have an independent office, or ombudsman, to aid the public and ensure the law is followed correctly. One state that does this is Connecticut. To him, transparency success comes down to one important part of the law: Enforcement.
In Michigan, every public body designates its own FOIA coordinator, and the way different offices approach requests can vary. He stressed that FOIA is less effective when run from within an agency, where it is susceptible to abuse through exorbitant fees.
“You could pass the best law in the world, but if it has no teeth, the government is just going to ignore it, and it won't make a difference,” Cuillier said.
In Lansing, state lawmakers have gotten used to operating with no concern about FOIA at all.
Attorney General Dana Nessel believes that in the State Capitol a culture has developed that sees transparency laws as a nuisance rather than a necessity for open government. She says legislators have become accustomed to candid, sometimes hostile email correspondence and may be more reluctant to discuss bills if made publicly available.
“If all you've ever known is that these conversations are not made public - these conversations are not exposed - you get used to it,” Nessel said. “Then when you feel like you have to do more than that, all you can see is the negatives.”
Nessel says FOIA requests have also been increasingly used for what she categorizes as harassment, both from the public and lawmakers, particularly the House Oversight Committee. A large increase in requests also has put a strain on her office.
Because of long response time, exorbitant fees and exemptions, many journalists increasingly work around, or without, FOIA requests.
Ron Fonger of the Flint Journal covered the Flint water crisis largely without FOIA, primarily through public meetings. Records that Fonger did report on were self-released by then Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration following public pressure, or were revealed through criminal prosecutions.
“I don’t know that we ultimately received everything that otherwise would have been subject to FOIA,” Fonger said.
Government officials have become increasingly resistant to records requests, according to MLive President John Hiner. He believes that a system with high fees and long waits to receive those records is working against the public not for it.
“We spend tens of thousands of dollars a year just to get information that, in a more transparent state, we wouldn’t have to pay anything (for),” Hiner said.
With no success in creating a legislative solution to expand FOIA to include the governor and legislature, many have suggested alternative measures as an option.
Nessel said many candidates have run on pro-transparency platforms only to abandon promises to expand FOIA once in office.
Any proposed change to Michigan’s FOIA law may need to be put on a statewide ballot to decide, Nessel said.
Lobbyists and news outlets have been trying to no avail to get legislation passed for the last decade. They, too, have begun to look elsewhere. A statewide poll from the Michigan Press Association in 2025 indicated 89% of Michigan voters would support a ballot initiative to change the law.
“Once these people are in positions of authority, and they've been benefiting from something like a lack of FOIA, they're just not going to (change the law),” Nessel said. “It's got to be through a ballot proposal.”
All MuckRock data used was from Nov. 29. As this data is continually updated, results may have fluctuated slightly in the time since.
—————
Lee Marentette is a junior at Grand Valley State University. He serves as the news editor of the Grand Valley Lanthorn.
MPA/Trott Foundation Fellowship
A decade ago, Michigan was dead last in national government transparency rankings.
While it has made some improvements, Michigan, alongside Massachusetts, remains one of two where both the governor and the legislature are exempt from public records laws.
The Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows access to most records of public bodies. The most recent legislation aimed at changing FOIA was rejected last month by House Speaker Matt Hall, in favor of reforms to publicly disclose legislative earmarks before the state budget was passed.
Moves like Hall’s raise the question of where we stand nationally when it comes to providing access to government records.
Collaborative journalism nonprofit MuckRock assists in filing and tracking public information requests across the country. Their website provides up to date statistics on each state, which can help gauge where Michigan ranks today.
Statewide, 21% of requests come with a fee attached, which is the fourth highest rate in the country; Oregon is the highest at 27.6%.
The average cost of a public records request in Michigan is nearly $5,200, which is the 13th highest in the nation; California is highest at $31,565, but only requests fees 2.7% of the time.
University of Florida’s Freedom of Information Project Director David Cuillier has spent two decades researching government information. A report he authored in 2019 using MuckRock data found a correlation between better transparency and stricter provisions, particularly short response deadlines and mandatory fee-shifting.
Michigan’s law contains both of these, as well as very high fees for violations. Possibly due to these factors, Michigan does rank among the middle of the states in requestor success rate at 34%; Alabama has the worst success rate at 15.8%.
However, expensive fees still present a significant challenge to citizens seeking public records.
While the overall success rate may be high in Michigan, the cost may dissuade many requestors from seeking information in the first place.
Cuillier suggested every state should have an independent office, or ombudsman, to aid the public and ensure the law is followed correctly. One state that does this is Connecticut. To him, transparency success comes down to one important part of the law: Enforcement.
In Michigan, every public body designates its own FOIA coordinator, and the way different offices approach requests can vary. He stressed that FOIA is less effective when run from within an agency, where it is susceptible to abuse through exorbitant fees.
“You could pass the best law in the world, but if it has no teeth, the government is just going to ignore it, and it won't make a difference,” Cuillier said.
In Lansing, state lawmakers have gotten used to operating with no concern about FOIA at all.
Attorney General Dana Nessel believes that in the State Capitol a culture has developed that sees transparency laws as a nuisance rather than a necessity for open government. She says legislators have become accustomed to candid, sometimes hostile email correspondence and may be more reluctant to discuss bills if made publicly available.
“If all you've ever known is that these conversations are not made public - these conversations are not exposed - you get used to it,” Nessel said. “Then when you feel like you have to do more than that, all you can see is the negatives.”
Nessel says FOIA requests have also been increasingly used for what she categorizes as harassment, both from the public and lawmakers, particularly the House Oversight Committee. A large increase in requests also has put a strain on her office.
Because of long response time, exorbitant fees and exemptions, many journalists increasingly work around, or without, FOIA requests.
Ron Fonger of the Flint Journal covered the Flint water crisis largely without FOIA, primarily through public meetings. Records that Fonger did report on were self-released by then Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration following public pressure, or were revealed through criminal prosecutions.
“I don’t know that we ultimately received everything that otherwise would have been subject to FOIA,” Fonger said.
Government officials have become increasingly resistant to records requests, according to MLive President John Hiner. He believes that a system with high fees and long waits to receive those records is working against the public not for it.
“We spend tens of thousands of dollars a year just to get information that, in a more transparent state, we wouldn’t have to pay anything (for),” Hiner said.
With no success in creating a legislative solution to expand FOIA to include the governor and legislature, many have suggested alternative measures as an option.
Nessel said many candidates have run on pro-transparency platforms only to abandon promises to expand FOIA once in office.
Any proposed change to Michigan’s FOIA law may need to be put on a statewide ballot to decide, Nessel said.
Lobbyists and news outlets have been trying to no avail to get legislation passed for the last decade. They, too, have begun to look elsewhere. A statewide poll from the Michigan Press Association in 2025 indicated 89% of Michigan voters would support a ballot initiative to change the law.
“Once these people are in positions of authority, and they've been benefiting from something like a lack of FOIA, they're just not going to (change the law),” Nessel said. “It's got to be through a ballot proposal.”
All MuckRock data used was from Nov. 29. As this data is continually updated, results may have fluctuated slightly in the time since.
—————
Lee Marentette is a junior at Grand Valley State University. He serves as the news editor of the Grand Valley Lanthorn.
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