Michigan voters will get a chance to call a new state constitutional convention this November. If a convention is called, delegates will get a chance to ask whether our state’s founding document is working as intended. Here are some provisions of the Michigan Constitution that work as intended and that delegates should keep.

• Financial disclosure required in Article IX, Sec. 23

People deserve to know where their tax money goes. This section declares that government financial records are public information and requires them to be open to public inspection. It also mandates an annual financial report from the state.

You might think that basic financial information from state and local governments would always be available. But such is not always the case. Nor is it the case with the federal government. The contracts signed by companies that received deals in the CHIPS Act, for instance, are considered private information. Payments to those companies are also confidential.

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation is currently suing the state Department of Treasury on behalf of the Detroit Free Press because the state would not disclose payments to a developer requested by a reporter. Our case cites this constitutional provision.

Also, the state’s annual financial reports are located here. These have been valuable to me and, I assume, many others.

• Enforcement of balanced budgets and more in Article V, Sec. 20

Unlike the federal government, the state only spends as much as it collects in revenue each year, plus anything that legislators may have saved. It does not finance large annual deficits by borrowing money to be paid off years or decades later. It doesn’t because of this section, which requires lawmakers to reduce spending if revenues fall below expectations.

It also stipulates that the executive doesn’t have to spend all the money that is authorized by the legislature.

These procedures keep the state away from insolvency — the point where the state doesn’t have the money to pay what it owes — and help the state lives within its means. The state can still get into financial trouble since other provisions on debts and pension liabilities have proven ineffective. But lawmakers have taken this section seriously and keep a balanced budget.

• An Auditor General appointed by the Legislature in Article IV, Sec. 53

State employees tend to work for elected officials, and they’re reluctant to criticize their bosses in public. But citizens should receive objective reports on whether the government is working as intended. The constitution requires this through the Auditor General, who calls balls and strikes over state operations.

Check out this office’s work and note that it provides a useful function. For instance, in this recent performance audit, the Auditor General reviewed the operations of the State Surplus, which sells off the state government’s assets when they are no longer needed, along with property confiscated by the state police. The Auditor General’s office says that the agency has been effective at its job, but highlighted some problems with its inventory, record keeping and control over assets. The administration agreed with the inventory and record keeping issues but pushed back on some of the asset controls. The audit report documents the issues and the responses from the administration.

The auditors review administration, not policy. It’s not their job to say whether it’s a good idea to operate the Office of Educator Excellence, but it is to ensure that it is being administered to the letter of the law and effectively doing the task that it was given. The office continues to serve an important public purpose.

These aren’t the only sections that would be important to keep around in a new constitution. They aren’t the most important provisions in the state constitution. It’s a reminder that the documents serve vital tasks and sections of it are doing a good job for state residents and the state government. Should voters call for a convention, I hope the delegates would agree and identify other worthwhile provisions worth keeping.

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