Case Study: State of Michigan achieves A+ transparency rating with Socrata

Goal Achieved: Michigan’s Path to an A+ Transparency Rating

Socrata partnered with the State of Michigan to relaunch the Open Michigan Transparency & Spending site after the state struggled to show detailed, accessible spending data and received only a B+ from U.S. PIRG. Michigan’s in‑house site was time‑consuming to update, hard for citizens to drill into, and not meeting the state’s goal of earning and maintaining an A grade in online spending transparency.

Using Socrata’s cloud-based platform and expertise—including guidance on U.S. PIRG grading criteria—the teams rebuilt the portal in under eight weeks, added user-friendly browsing and bulk data download, and automated data uploads. The result: Michigan jumped from 87 points (B+) to a perfect 100 (A+), was named the most improved state, and saved about 30 staff hours per month while improving public access to budget data.

State of Michigan

Rick Snyder

Governor of Michigan