Lawmakers add $160M in earmarks to Michigan budget — and transparency rules

Lawmakers are up early approving $160 million in pet projects for the new state budget
Among the winners: Midland-area dams, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport
Unlike past years, the process required transparency measures and laws barring largesse to for-profit companies

LANSING — Michigan lawmakers added $160 million in earmarks to a new state budget they approved early Friday, using taxpayer dollars to purchase police Tasers, a harvest simulator, art museum upgrades and more.

In doing so, the Legislature also agreed to new rules designed to reform the process, including a requirement that lawmakers publicly sponsor and attempt to justify earmarks before final votes.

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The earmark process has been rife with controversy in recent years, in part because lawmakers added last-minute grants to massive spending bills that were unveiled and quickly passed in late-night sessions. They included some eyebrow-raising grants, including millions for rockets, private firms and projects benefiting the politically connected.

But the new rules are permanent changes that will bring “more transparency and accountability” to the earmark and state budget process, said House Appropriations Chair Ann Bollin, R-Brighton.

Among the notable earmarks included in the new budget:

$10 million for West Road bridge in Trenton, sponsored by Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown Township. In a request published online Tuesday, Camilleri said the condition of the bridge had already forced closure of two lanes of traffic, limiting capacity and making it unsafe.
$10 million for Midland flood mitigation and $9.8 million for the Four Lakes Task Force Dam Restoration, sponsored by Rep. Bill Schuette, R-Midland. “Floods have negatively impacted individuals, jobs, economic growth, property values, and tax revenues in Midland, Schuette wrote in a spring funding request.
$4 million for the Jewish Federation of Detroit to implement community safety measures, sponsored by Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield. In a request form published online Wednesday, Moss said the funding will help protect Jewish residents in metro Detroit “from potential harm stemming from antisemitic acts and violence.”
$2 million for the Grand Rapids Art Museum, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Cannon Township. In a spring request, he said the museum “urgently requires critical infrastructure repairs to remain open and continue serving the community,” including new utility floor grates, outdated lighting and security systems.
$4.4 million for infrastructure project in Davison, sponsored by Rep. David Martin, R-Davison. In a spring funding request, Martin said the funding is to repair 12 local roads as part of a larger project to “replace aged and undersized water mains, update the Water Treatment Plant, and repair and paint the water storage tower to ensure compliance with state drinking water standards.”
$3 million for Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport infrastructure, sponsored by Rep. Karl Bohnak, R-Marquette. In a spring funding request, Bohnak said it will help “strengthen air service and invest in infrastructure” at the airport, which he called “the largest and only market-based commercial airport in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.”
$737,000 for new police Tasers in Calhoun County, sponsored by Rep. Steve Frisbie, R-Battle Creek. In a spring request, Frisbie said the funding would help the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Marshall Police Department and the Albion Department of Public Safety “upgrade from the Axon X26P to the new Axon T10” Tasers. The new model has “numerous features that make it more effective for officer safety with enhanced accuracy and range, along with better battery life, and “integrates seamlessly with Axon’s body cameras, providing a real time record of taser deployment.”
$2.5 million for fire trucks and equipment in Hazel Park, sponsored by Rep. Mike McFall, D-Hazel Park. In a spring funding request he said a new fire truck “is vital for the public safety of Hazel Park residents and would “improve the outcomes and safety of the fire department.”
$100,000 for a “harvest simulator” at Kirtland Community College, sponsored by Rep. Ken Borton, R-Gaylord, The simulator “Would be the only one operating at an institution of higher learning in Michigan and is an integral piece of the one-of-a-kind Michigan Forest Products Institute” at the community college.

Prior to the budget vote, the Michigan Senate on Monday adopted a weaker version of House-backed rules to reform the earmark process by disclosing grant requests on a public website before the vote and requiring lawmakers to explain the “public benefit.”

Senate Democrats began publishing dozens of requests Tuesday morning – three days before the budget vote.

Stronger rules adopted by the Republican-led House early this year required all pet project funding requests to be publicly disclosed online by May 1, or at least 14 days before any votes, to allow time for public vetting.

Both rule sets included additional reforms, however, including a prohibition on earmarks to nonprofits that have existed for less than three years or had an office in Michigan for less than one year.

Those provisions would have prevented a $25 million 2022 earmark awarded to a nonprofit created by a former legislative aide who is now battling related embezzlement charges.

Another earmark that same year went to a new nonprofit led by businesswoman Fay Beydoun that is now also under investigation.

The new earmark rules also prohibit grants to for-profit companies, like a $5 million housing project earmark awarded in 2023 to a metro Detroit developer who subsequently donated nearly $500,000 to state legislators.

House Speaker Matt Hall, who pushed for reform, said the Legislature is also committed to finalizing a new law to permanently change the earmark process for future budget cycles.

“This is how we get better value for the taxpayers,” House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said earlier this week. “Far too many of these earmarks have been abused by bad actors in the past, and far too many politicians have abused this process to stuff the budget full of pork projects they can’t defend. That ends now.”