Right Wing Group FOIAs Pension Information
Michigan’s Office of Retirement Services has sent out notifications that American Transparency has filed a FOIA request for information on all public school retires receiving a pension. ORS will release only that information required by FOIA. Sensitive information such as social security numbers, date of birth, contact information, beneficiary and medical information will not be released.
American Transparency is focused primarily on government spending issues. They send FOIAs to local, state, and federal agencies all over the country, in order to track “every dime” of government spending, including public employees’ salaries and pensions. They are not affiliated with the right wing, Koch supported State Policy Network or its related think tanks (Mackinac Center). Its founder and CEO supports Right-to-Work and ran for governor of Illinois in 2010 with the endorsement of Rush Limbaugh. They are receiving funding from major conservative donors, including the Koch’s DonorsTrust and the Bradley Foundation.