Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s new $9.3 million “Michigan Transparency Network” is blocking access to critical campaign finance data, but the gubernatorial hopeful promises it will be fixed some time soon.

Benson’s Michigan Department of State told Bridge Michigan in a statement the agency rolled out the hobbled network this month with “base functionality” in hopes of addressing an array of issues “as soon as possible.”

“Additional features will be added in coming weeks, including planned upgrades to the public search function,” spokesman Sam May told the news site. “These features will be prioritized with input from filers and other users across the system.”

So far, the feedback has not been good.

“The revamped campaign finance page is much more inefficient & cumbersome to navigate from what I can tell in the early attempts to do so,” Nick Smith, Senate reporter for Gongwer News Service, recently posted to X.

“The Department of State is now asking for a username and password to view campaign finance filings for elected officials. Previously, these were readily available through the site (if you knew what you were looking for),” fellow Gongwer reporter Elena Durnbaugh wrote in an X post that was later deleted. “Not the campaign finance transparency I’m looking for.”

Last March, Benson announced a new Michigan Transparency Network “will be upgraded to a consolidated reporting system that will make personal financial disclosure, campaign finance, lobbying and legal defense fund information publicly available in one convenient, easy-to-use web portal.”

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The state inked a deal in May to pay Texas-based Tyler Technologies $9.3 million to build the new system, despite the company’s documented track record of failure in Texas, California, Tennessee, Indiana and North Carolina. In North Carolina, Tyler Technologies’ eCourts electronic records system prompted a $5 million class action lawsuit from residents who were allegedly wrongly arrested or detained in jail far longer than they should have been, according to The Center Square.

In the months since the Secretary of State announced her new network, Benson has championed herself as a beacon of transparency amid her campaign to replace Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2026.

“It’s time to act,” Benson posted to X in December. “Let’s make government more transparent for everyone.”

“Congratulations to Michigan’s newly sworn-in lawmakers,” she posted on Jan. 1. “I am looking forward to working with all of you to ensure Michigan’s government truly works for everyone.”

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“I know how to make government work,” Benson posted days later.

State Rep. Bill Schuette, R-Midland, isn’t convinced.

“You’d hope they’d be able to do it for less than $10 million and you’d be able to use it,” Schuette told Bridge. “Frankly I’m not sure how we could do worse.”

The new site now provides less information than before, omitting lobbyist client lists and expenses, as well as mass downloads of public information used by watchdogs to hold public officials accountable.

It’s the kind of public information used last year to reveal Benson’s Michigan Legacy PAC gave at least $82,500 to Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden at a time when Bolden was overseeing cases involving the Secretary of State. Unsurprisingly, Bolden ruled in Benson’s favor. Benson’s PAC donations were part of a broader effort to expand the high court’s liberal majority that records show was also financed by massive donations from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the George Soros funded super PAC State Victory Action, and trial lawyers.

Benson’s new transparency roadblocks are essentially “taking away your opportunity for people to see the whole picture,” Brendan Glavin, research director at OpenSecrets, told Bridge.

It was a similar take from the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

“Ending open campaign finance and lobbying data access will force the public to use difficult and costly FOIA requests, which have their own limitations in Michigan,” said Executive Director Neil Thanedar. “MDOS should reverse these changes and make it as easy as possible to download and analyze government transparency data.”

Unfortunately, Benson’s track record for FOIA requests isn’t any better than the transparency networks accessibility.

House Republicans were forced to threaten a subpoena last month after the Secretary of State stonewalled a FOIA request from Speaker Pro Tem Rachelle Smit, R-Martin, to review training materials for election clerks.

While Benson eventually provided most of the documents, Smit contends her experience working to get them directly contradicts Benson’s promises on the campaign trail.

“Secretary Benson repeatedly tells the public that her department is a paragon of transparency,” Smit said in a statement. “However, my four-month ordeal trying to obtain the most basic of records indicates otherwise. The way Secretary Benson operates her department is not transparency, it’s obfuscation.”

Others, meanwhile, are offering excuses for Benson’s debilitated transparency portal that could be resolved by simply removing a new login prompt on the old system.

“When you bring new technology to any system, whether it’s in public or private industry, there are growing pains,” Sen. Jeremy Moss, a Southfield Democrat who chairs the Senate Elections and Ethics Committee, told Bridge.

He described the bungled portal as “a learning opportunity to make this thing more accessible.”