Michigan lawmakers clash over earmark reforms as criminal hearing looms

Michigan Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to overhaul how the state handles earmark spending requests, otherwise called ‘pork‘
House Speaker Matt Hall says the proposal does not go far enough, vows to block other Senate bills until changed
Debate comes ahead of criminal court hearing for an ex-legislative aide accused of embezzling part of a $25M grant

LANSING — The Michigan Senate voted Tuesday to create permanent new earmark rules, approving significant reforms to how lawmakers can add funding for pet projects to the state budget.

But the legislation appears dead on arrival in the House, where House Speaker Matt Hall blasted it, arguing it does not require lawmakers to disclose earmarks requests far enough in advance.

Under the legislation, approved by the Senate in a 31-5 vote, lawmakers would need to submit earmark requests at least 10 days before final budget votes.

“Ten days disclosure is a joke,” Hall, R-Richland Township, said later Tuesday, proposing a 90-day window to give the public and officials more time to vet projects seeking taxpayer funding.

Unless Senate Democrats extend that disclosure window, “no more Senate bills” will be brought up for a vote in the House, Hall said. “Why can’t you come up with your (earmark) ideas before 90 days?”

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, did not respond to a question about the earmark bill but noted Hall is blocking a transparency push he once supported to expand public records requests to the governor and Legislature through the Freedom of Information Act.

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The House earlier this year approved new earmark transparency rules in an attempt to reform a process that in years past has prompted controversy, investigations and criminal charges against a former legislative aide.

The Legislature incorporated some of those rules when approving a new budget earlier this month with more than $160 million in new earmarks requested by individual lawmakers, including funding for police Tasers, a harvest simulator, art museum upgrades and more.

Hall has said permanent earmark reforms were part of the budget deal he struck with Senate Democrats and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Tuesday’s Senate vote came weeks ahead of a scheduled preliminary examination for David Coker, a former legislative aide to ex-House Speaker Jason Wentworth who is now facing eight felony counts in connection with a $25 million earmark for a Clare health park project.

Separately, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office continues to investigate a $20 million earmark awarded to a Whitmer donor to create an “international business accelerator.”

Advanced disclosure debate

Supporters contend the earmark legislation approved Tuesday in the Senate could improve the process known as “pork-barrel spending.” But some lawmakers said they do not think the proposal goes far enough.

Under the proposal, lawmakers would need to publicly disclose budget earmarks they are sponsoring at least 10 days before final passage. They’d have to provide their name, the total cost of the project, the type of organization receiving the money and any potential conflicts of interest.

State Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, pushed to require disclosure 60 days before a vote, but colleagues ultimately deadlocked on his proposed amendment, causing it to fail.

“It seems to me that there is (a) definitive desire not to be fully transparent,” Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, said in a floor speech following the deadlock.

Theis was one of five senators — including Republican Sens. Dan Lauwers, Kevin Daley and Jonathan Lindsey, as well as Democratic Sen. Jeff Irwin — to vote against the bill. She called it a “fantastic idea” but argued the 10-day advance disclosure window was too narrow.

“We absolutely should have more transparency,” Theis said, “but to the extent that we’re limiting it in such a way, I have major concerns.”

Criminal hearing looms

As part of the Senate-passed earmark legislation, lawmakers could not give money to for-profit entities. Lawmakers could additionally only give money to nonprofit entities so long as they’ve operated in the state of Michigan for at least three years preceding the earmark request.

That would have prevented the $25 million earmark for a Clare health and fitness center awarded in 2022 to a nonprofit created the same year by Coker, 51, who in May was charged with embezzlement and maintaining a criminal enterprise, among other things. He’s pleaded not guilty.

Coker created the nonprofit around the same time Wentworth was adding the earmark to the state budget. Records show the firm subsequently paid more than $820,000 to a for-profit consulting company he owned called IW Consulting.

Nessel’s office alleged Coker transferred “hundreds of thousands” of dollars into his personal bank accounts and used some of the taxpayer money intended for a health and fitness center in Clare to buy gold coins, gold bars, silver, platinum, vehicles and firearm accessories.

Coker’s preliminary exam – which will determine whether he stands trial — is scheduled to begin Nov. 19 in Lansing’s 54-A District Court.