By Schyler Perkins, My UP Now
MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN/WBUP) — Two Upper Peninsula legislators were among at least 17 republicans who asked for more gas money from taxpayers after skipping out on voting for half a month. Finding out why, however, proved more difficult than you might expect.
The announcement first came from The Detroit Free Press on March 29.
The column, titled “Lame duck lawmaker no-shows still collected reimbursement dough,” details investigative reporter M.L. Elrick’s efforts to learn whether republican legislators sought mileage reimbursement for driving to Lansing despite a party-wide effort to boycott House votes for the latter half of Dec. 2024 — and why a straight answer was often hard to pin down.
The UP’s representatives Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River) and Greg Markkanen (R-Hancock) participated in the walkout.
At the time, democrats held a razor-thin majority and republicans said they weren’t being treated fairly. So, during a lame duck session when the legislature is normally a whirlwind of progress, they walked out and took the quorum with them.
“When the 54 Republicans boycotted, and one Democrat who was also unhappy boycotted — essentially, the legislature couldn’t get any work done,” explained Elrick in an interview with My UP News.
For many public organizations in the state, the Freedom of Information Act makes requesting basic financial information relatively easy. And for House members, their compensation is pretty simple; a base salary of $71,685, an expense allowance of $10,800, and an additional mileage expense for in-district and regular travel to Lansing that is doled out for each mile reported.
The latter is what Elrick was trying to pin down.
Unfortunately, Michigan is one of only two states in the nation that does not give the public the right to FOIA the state legislature.
Limited amount of information
“The way it works now, the House Business Office says that we’re entitled to a limited amount of information,” said Elrick.
For Elrick, that limited amount of information materialized in a 5-page report listing the Nov. and Dec. 2024 SOCC mileage reimbursement amounts for each House member.
Some, like Rep. Cam Cavitt (R-Cheboygan) were consistent. He filed for $848.22 both months. At $0.67 per mile, that amounts to about three round-trips per month.
Others, like boycott leader Rep. Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) claimed less, asking for $304.85 in Nov. and then $261.30.
Meanwhile, Markkanen asked for $813.38 and $1,329.28, the most in the state. However, with a nearly 1,000-mile round-trip, his December claim amounts to only two drives from Hancock to Lansing and back.
Prestin, whose round-trip is about 750 miles, had an interesting request: only $75.04 claimed in regular mileage, but $337.68 for in-district mileage in November. In December, he claimed $580.22 regular and $99.16 in-district.
According to the law, a legislator does not have to show up to vote in order to be eligible to claim mileage — they just need to be conducting business, which could be anything from attending session, to getting lunch with a lobbyist.
“If you drove to Lansing and took a nap in your office, you’re entitled to mileage reimbursement,” said Elrick.
(Refusing to attend House sessions, however, could be illegal. At least, that’s according to Attorney General Dana Nessel, who at the time called the boycott “literally criminal.” Weeks later, however, she announced no one would be charged as a result of their participation.)
The real question
The remaining question was; if the Representatives weren’t attending session, did they drive to Lansing? And if so, were they doing anything productive?
And the SOCC reports don’t say anything about that. Further, the mileage summary may only represent miles claimed that period, not driven — meaning dollars could have been doled out in December as the legislators played catch-up from earlier in the year.
Elrick emailed and called each of the 47 boycotting republicans who were still in office.
“I called them to say, ‘it looks like you were reimbursed for going to Lansing, but not going to the House chambers to vote on legislation during lame duck. Please let me know if that’s true,'” said Elrick.
There were many he did not hear back from.
“Representative Prestin was one who got back to me and said, ‘yeah, I don’t think we’re going to talk about this.’ Which is fine. But, if there’s a record to be set straight, that was his opportunity to do that,” said Elrick.
Later, we reached out to Prestin. One of his aides called and when our deadline was; the next day, they sent this response:
“Rep. Prestin traveled to Lansing each session week until a bipartisan group of legislators walked out of the Capitol on December 13, 2024. He knew the boycott most effectively represented the values and the priorities of U.P. residents. He continued to work and was ready for voting if a compromise was reached.
His travel reimbursements accurately reflect the weeks he was working in Lansing and he has never requested reimbursement for travel he did not make.”
We reached out to Markkanen twice by email, but never received a response. On April 9, a My UP News reporter saw Markkanen in person and requested he answer our request. If we do receive a response, it will be added here.
State Rep. Mike Mueller, of Linden, had received less during the boycott. According to Elrick, one of his aides explained why.
“If someone’s not here, there’s no way in hell they should be putting in for that,” Elrick attributes to Mueller’s constituent relations director Michael Moon, about being paid for traveling to the Capitol but not attending session.
A historical lens
“You should check out the story of Joe Mack, a once legendary UP senator who resigned in disgrace,” Elrick told me during an email exchange.
If you Google the name, not much will come up. It’s surprising, given his 1990 incident was part of a massive scandal that led to a total overhaul of House finance policy, and according to at least one report — the death of DJ Jacobetti.
Before then, Mack (D-Ironwood) was a four-decade force of nature in Lansing. He wore “psychedelic sport coats,” admonished environmentalists, and was said to have an intense devotion to his constituents.
Elrick was a college student working as a part-time clerk for the Free Press when tips were coming in about Mack’s spending habits.
“Joe Mack was getting reimbursed by the state of Michigan for expenses that accumulated in the course of doing his job as a Michigan lawmaker when he was, in fact, living in Florida. He was a snowbird,” Elrick said of the tips.
Officially, Mack was hammered for filing bunk expense reports for travel from Ironwood to Lansing, when in reality he was regularly going back to Florida when not in session. His plea agreement came with the deal that prosecutors wouldn’t pursue any more charges.
Other Free Press reports say Mack played fast-and-loose with Officeholder Expense Fund reports, racking up cash flows of $16,000 per year (over $40k in 2026 dollars). On the bright side, much of that was supposedly from lobbyists, not state coffers.
Meanwhile, Mack blamed “the newspapers” for the whole ordeal, saying he was just following doctor’s orders to stay out of the cold following two heart operations.
Within a few years, a gaggle of other scandals would culminate in a front-page story on the Detroit News in 1993 detailing how the House Fiscal Agency was funding vacations, credit card payments and more.
Reeling back to today
Now, no one is claiming our current legislators are sliding into Mack’s footsteps, but when the books are tightly held, and many legislators aren’t quick to explain, it highlights a critical irony about the boycott:
That historic FOIA reform was among the legislation that died at the altar. After over a decade of efforts, it was the closest the reforms had come to becoming law.
“To me, we send lawmakers to Lansing to dispose of legislation. And if you don’t like it, you vote against it,” said Elrick.
I responded, explaining Prestin justified the boycott as being in the best interest of his constituents.
“Well, you know, let me throw something back at you there,” said Elrick. “I bet there’s other legislation he thought was bad that he voted ‘no’ on!”
“So if it’s bad, vote no. And if it’s good, like expanding the Freedom of Information Act, vote yes,” Elrick said, “and I bet you the good people of the Upper Peninsula would be very, very interested in seeing the Freedom of Information Act expanded to cover members of the legislature so that we don’t have to call these guys and ask them questions.”
This story originally appeared on My UP News. Do you have a story tip you would like us to look into? If so, you can email us at news@myupnow.com or reach out to Schyler Perkins directly at sperkins@myupnow.com.
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