State Rep. Jerry Neyer today voted to get money out of politics by blocking public-backed utilities and other large corporations from donating to political campaigns and candidates. The state House overwhelmingly approved the Michiganders for Money out of Politics (MMOP) citizen-initiated law proposal, which was initiated after hundreds of thousands of Michiganders signed a petition urging the Legislature to adopt the policies reflected in the MMOP proposal.

“Today, we voted to take money out of politics,” said Neyer (R-Shepherd). “Michigan elections should be decided by Michigan voters, not by companies willing to spend millions of dollars trying to influence the system.”

Neyer and House Republicans have been fighting to lower energy rates and healthcare bills for the entire legislative term. With the adoption of the MMOP proposal, the largest corporations most impacted by efforts to lower rates will be blocked from launching massive dark money campaigns to try and put their thumb on the scale to sway regulators who should be independent.

“The action we took today cracks down on bad actors, blocking them from swaying Michigan elections,” said Neyer. “Hundreds of thousands of Michiganders asked us to take action, and today we listened.”

The citizen-initiated proposal still needs to be approved by the state Senate, which did not hold session Tuesday. The proposal must be approved in the coming days, or the decision will be pushed to the November election for the public to decide whether the state should implement the proposal.