Michigan taxpayers give $280,000 per year to boutique lobbyist news outlets MIRS and Gongwer

The new Depart­ment Of Gov­ern­ment Effi­cien­cy (DOGE) found the feds were pay­ing mil­lions to Politi­co.

In Michi­gan, two news agen­cies that focus on in-depth Lans­ing gos­sip for the state polit­i­cal class (politi­cians, their staff, and lob­by­ists), Michi­gan Infor­ma­tion Research Ser­vice (MIRS) and Gong­w­er, received big pay­outs by tax­pay­er-fund­ed gov­ern­ment enti­ties.

Exclu­sive­ly report­ed by the Michi­gan Enjoy­er:

Both out­lets pur­port to cov­er the goings-on of state gov­ern­ment bet­ter than any­body. And both out­lets are heav­i­ly patron­ized by the very same state gov­ern­ment they cov­er.

In 2022, the state spent $120,000 on Gong­w­er sub­scrip­tions. That went up to $123,600 in 2023, and $127,380 in 2024.

In 2022, the state spent about $256,000 on MIRS sub­scrip­tions, about $267,000 in 2023, and about $271,000 in 2024. The 2025 invoice, which will be sent out in May, will be for $143,427. 

This means that in 2025, Michi­gan tax­pay­ers will foot about $280,000 in bills for two news out­lets lit­tle-known to the aver­age Michi­gan­der. 

Read the full sto­ry here.

MIRS and Gong­w­er charge top dol­lar for their sub­scrip­tions, so much so that they don’t even list the price on their web­site. The pub­lic is told to con­tact them to request a quote.

Per­haps Michi­gan tax­pay­ers should sim­ply ask for a free sub­scrip­tion, since their tax dol­lars finance the pub­li­ca­tions in large part.