Joe Tate

"It essentially amounts to legal bribery. How else can you explain our lack of action on holding DTE accountable, especially, considering it's one of the most popular and important issues?" - Rep. Dylan Wegela, regarding $100,000 contribution from DTE-linked group to Tate's nonprofit

Joe Tate, a Democrat from Detroit, served as Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives in 2023-2024. His tenure was marked by controversy over his relationship with corporate interests and resistance to transparency reforms. His speakership ended amid criticism that Democrats had squandered their first legislative majority in 40 years by failing to enact meaningful transparency reforms.

Joe Tate

Campaign Finance and Dark Money

During Tate's speakership, concerns emerged about the use of 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations to channel undisclosed political donations. These organizations, often referred to as "dark money groups," allowed donors to influence policy while avoiding public disclosure requirements.

Citizens for a Better Michigan, an organization linked to Tate, reported raising $587,474 in 2023, his first year as speaker. The group told the IRS its mission was to "improve the quality of life for Michigan residents by advocating for practical policy solutions." Tax records showed the organization spent:

• $67,311 on "conferences, conventions and meetings"
• $41,414 on travel
• $26,503 on advertising and promotion

Utility Company Regulation and Influence

Under Tate's speakership, attempts to strengthen utility company regulation faced significant obstacles, particularly following widespread power outages affecting Michigan residents. In February 2023, over 900,000 electricity customers lost power during severe winter weather, with some outages lasting more than six days. This crisis prompted House Democrats, including Energy Chairwoman Helena Scott, to introduce "The Putting People First Energy Package," which would have required state energy regulators to establish incentives and penalties for reliability and mandated annual reports on utilities' reliability performance.

Despite initial momentum and public support, the regulatory effort stalled under Tate's leadership. The main bill, sponsored by Scott, advanced out of the energy committee on November 8, 2023, but never received a vote from the full House, where Tate controlled the agenda. The timing of this legislative inaction coincided with a $100,000 contribution from Michigan Energy First, a nonprofit organization led by DTE Energy executives, to Citizens for a Better Michigan, an account linked to Tate.

Further attempts to regulate utility political influence through legislation also met resistance. A February 2024 proposal to ban Michigan's electric utilities from making political contributions drew particular opposition from Tate's office. According to Rep. Dylan Wegela, some of the 14 Democrats who signed on as co-sponsors faced "backlash" from the speaker's office, though the specific nature of this backlash was not detailed. The utilities targeted for regulation, including DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, benefit from government-imposed limits on competition within their service areas while maintaining significant political influence through contributions.

Opposition to Reform and Transparency

Tate's tenure as speaker demonstrated a pattern of systematic opposition to ethics reforms, with actions ranging from procedural delays to active discouragement of reform efforts within his caucus. Under Tate's leadership, multiple ethics reform initiatives were systematically delayed or blocked. His approach included:

• Referring bills to the Government Operations Committee rather than the Ethics and Oversight Committee
• Limiting session days during which votes could be held
• Delaying committee hearings on reform legislation
• Privately discouraging caucus members from introducing stronger reform measures

FOIA Reform Opposition

Speaker Tate's handling of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform marked a significant departure from his predecessors' approaches to government transparency. Michigan remained one of only two states that fully exempted its governor and Legislature from public records requests, a status quo that Tate effectively maintained despite previous bipartisan support for reform. The Democrat-controlled Senate had passed FOIA expansion bills with a strong 36-2 vote in June 2024, sending them to the House where Tate and majority Democrats had five months to advance them to Governor Whitmer's desk.

Rather than directing the bills to the Ethics and Oversight Committee, which traditionally handled such legislation, Tate sent them to the Government Operations Committee, where they remained dormant until December 11, just days before the session's end. This delay proved crucial, as the bills ultimately collapsed during the chaotic final days of the lame-duck session. The timing was particularly significant as Tate became the first speaker in a decade to not hold a vote on instituting an open records law for the Legislature and governor.

The failure to advance FOIA reform was especially notable given Democrats' previous advocacy for transparency while in the minority. From 2011 through 2022, House Democrats had championed transparency reform, with former Representative Brandon Dillon describing it in 2015 as a "matter of basic fairness and accountability." Tate himself had voted for similar FOIA expansion measures in 2021 when they passed the House 109-0. Former Democratic Representative Dave LaGrand, who had previously held press conferences demanding more transparency from Republican majorities, called the Democrats' inaction "really, really distressing," arguing that declining trust in government posed a fundamental threat to democracy. "The only way you get trust is transparency," LaGrand stated. "Secrecy does not make anybody trust anything."

The BRITE Act

The BRITE Act, introduced by House Democrats in March 2024, represented a comprehensive attempt at ethics reform in Michigan following scandals involving former House Speaker Lee Chatfield. The seven-bill package aimed to address systemic issues in state government, including the regulation of nonprofit organizations tied to lawmakers and implementing a one-year "cooling off" period before former legislators could become lobbyists.

Despite initial momentum and backing from the House Ethics and Oversight Committee, the legislation faced significant obstacles under Speaker Tate's leadership. The bills that would have registered nonprofit fundraising accounts advanced out of the ethics committee on December 5, but leadership never brought them to the floor for votes. Similarly, a proposal establishing the lobbying waiting period cleared committee on November 14 but never received a floor vote. Rep. Erin Byrnes, chairwoman of the Ethics and Oversight Committee, reported facing "roadblocks" when attempting to hold hearings on the package, stating she "was trying to work through the speaker's office to be able to hold those committee hearings, and I was told to wait."

Dark Money Disclosure Initiative

Separate from the BRITE Act, Democratic lawmakers sought to introduce legislation specifically targeting the disclosure of donors to nonprofit fundraising accounts, a practice that had become widespread in Michigan politics. A Detroit News investigation revealed 87 accounts in Michigan received political contributions outside traditional campaign disclosure laws in 2023 and 2024, indicating a majority of the state Legislature was engaged in collecting money from secret donors.

Speaker Tate actively worked to prevent these disclosure requirements from being introduced, with multiple Democratic sources confirming he privately urged caucus members not to include such provisions in proposed legislation. The opposition to disclosure requirements came as Tate's own associated nonprofit, Citizens for a Better Michigan, received significant donations, including $100,000 from Michigan Energy First, a group led by DTE Energy executives.

Attorney General Dana Nessel highlighted the impact of such undisclosed donations, noting that "powerful interests" had avoided disclosure while working to sway elections and public policy, and that legislators frequently cited pressure from "big-monied, unreported donor[s]" as reason for blocking popular legislation.

Use of Non-Disclosure Agreements to Shield Corporate Deals

Tate's broader pattern of opposing transparency measures and maintaining secrecy around government operations and corporate influence continued through his participation in the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that shields public business receiving massive taxpayer-funded subsidies from taxpayer scrutiny.

The House speaker's control over SOAR fund (Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve) required extensive use of NDAs:

• 36 non-disclosure agreements were required for discussions of one battery plant project
• The agreements included 11 lawmakers, including Tate, nearly 20 legislative staffers, and several officials from Whitmer's administration
• The NDAs lasted five years and included a running list of projects, memos and information blocked from public release

The fact that these agreements prevented elected officials from sharing information with their constituents about how tax dollars were being spent raised significant ethical concerns, especially given that:

• The deals involved nearly $800 million in tax incentives
• Public officials were barred from discussing at least 20 projects being considered for business incentives
• Information was blocked even after decisions were made about public funds