Michigan House asks taxpayers to fund 800 pork projects

Michigan House lawmakers want state taxpayers to fund about 800 pork projects.

Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, released a list of “legislatively directed spending items” — also known as pork projects — the amount requested, which organizations would benefit, and which legislator requested the spending.

If the 2026 budget were to contain all those requests, pork spending would be more than twice the size of the total for fiscal year 2024, which set a record. One difference, though, is that legislators’ requests would be immediately available to the public. Another is that no earmarks would go to any local government whose officials declared their jurisdiction to be a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, Hall told legislators.

April 18 was the deadline for legislators to request the set-asides. Typically, a legislator will request that an organization, such as a nonprofit or local township, receive a specified amount of taxpayer dollars.

The 2023-24 state budget set aside $1,842,961,700 for district-specific pork projects.

An expert on state budgets urged lawmakers to turn away from pork projects. “Lawmakers ought to be focused more on spending money to benefit the public than spending money to benefit their district,” said James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Michigan Capitol Confidential reports each year on earmarks, and the task is made more difficult by a lack of transparency in budget documents.

In years past, state budgets would include many a line item with a vague description of a district earmark but not the name of the organizations that would receive it. The budget usually would not mention which legislator requested the earmark, and legislators would often not respond to requests for information.

For example, CapCon reported Nov. 6 on a teacher collaborative that was awarded $2 million. The budget document did not provide the name of the group. It instead included the following description:

“From the funds appropriated in part 1 for community enhancement grants, $2,000,000.00 shall be awarded to a teacher collaborative located in a county with a population between 600,000 and 700,000 according to the most recent federal decennial census to support programming.”

CapCon was able to identify the recipient as the West Michigan Teacher Collaborative. At other times, it has not been able to identify the recipient of a pork project.

Hohman noted in a July 2023 CapCon story that elected officials have favorites and want to show voters they are doing something for their district.

“The people of Michigan will spend $900,000 in 2024 for a grant program to fund cricket fields. And it may be that a cricket field at Raintree Park in the city of Troy would have been the best applicant for that money — if lawmakers set aside money to a cricket-funding program. But the way to discover the best project is through open legislation and a competitive application process. Earmarks do the opposite. Legislators put in a $900,000 grant for a cricket field in Troy, not because it was the best potential cricket project, but because some politician asked for it.”

CapCon asked two members of the House Appropriations Committee for comment. Its chair, Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton, did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Neither did Vice Chair Rep. Alabas Farhat, D-Dearborn.