Brinks Says Hall Gave 'Sore Loser Vibe' For Trying To Redirect Past Budget Dollars

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/12/2025) Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) says House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) gave her a "sore loser vibe" after the House Appropriations Committee rejected "work project" dollars from Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. Legislative Democrats right now are using the recent headline to heavily target House Republicans.

"We saw him try and negate some things that were duly passed last term at the beginning of his time as Speaker with the nine bills. We're seeing a continuation of that when he's trying to rewrite history. It has a bit of a sore loser vibe," Brinks said to MIRS.

Brinks spoke to MIRS late Thursday afternoon as part of a pre-recording for the upcoming MIRS Monday Podcast episode.

She compared the work projects moment to the beginning of this year, when she filed a lawsuit against Hall for not presenting nine bills to the Governor that were left behind by the clerk's office of last term's Democratic House speaker, Rep. Joe Tate (D-Detroit).

A Michigan Court of Appeals panel ruled that the 2023-24 legislation should be presented by the new House body, but today's House Republicans asked for the Michigan Supreme Court to hear an appeal.

"I think it's troubling that he thinks he can go back and undo the actions of previous legislatures, and it's also troubling that almost nobody really seemed to know what they actually disapproved (of), even as they were taking the votes to do so," Brinks said.

As for Senate Democrats' retaliation move, Brinks explained how, ahead of crafting a strategy, her caucus is trying to understand what exactly has been impacted.

Although the House rejected Wednesday afternoon $644.9 million in unspent money from the FY '25 budget adopted last term – which departments were responsible for disbursing legislative-sponsored projects ranging from museums to hospitals – there are a few things unclear.

For example, some of the flagged projects have already received all of their "work project" funding or a significant portion of it, like $3 million sponsored by Sen. Mark Huizenga (R-Walker) to expand the Meijer Sports Complex in Plainfield Township serving youth and amateur athletes. The expansion was projected to raise $1 million in extra visitor spending annually, accommodating 200 additional sports teams with pickleball courts, softball and baseball fields, concession space and more.

However, there was also $500,000 to go toward the Grand Rapids' Blandford Nature Center, sponsored by Rep. Carol Glanville (D-Grand Rapids). Huizenga said when he checked in on the center, he learned none of that money had been disbursed.

But, at the same time, the construction project that the $500,000 was geared toward doesn't start until 2027.

"To me, if it's a building project . . . when you can demonstrate the receipts and that the work has been done, then you submit a draw request, and then the draw with the receipts to match up (that) the expenses happened," Huizenga said. "I think that's the accountability there."

Huizenga said he maybe thinks the House jumped the gun a little bit, seeing some projects that were not yet using their money, attempting to make the case that if the dollars aren't being used they need to return to Michigan's General Fund.

"If the intent is to say 'if you haven't used the money, then you should have it taken away from you,' I think maybe they just did a blanket approach instead of looking a little more surgically," Huizenga said.

Although Sen. Joseph Bellino Jr. (R-Monroe) is unhappy that affected in the mix was $3.5 million for Hillsdale Hospital – a rural independent healthcare provider – he did note that there is some "bullshit" on the work project list.

For example, $300,000 was sponsored by Rep. Will Snyder (D-Muskegon) to install free public WiFi in Downtown Detroit's Greektown neighborhood, an entertainment neighborhood with nightclubs, restaurants and the Hollywood Casino.

"You can hold me on that – that's some bullshit," Bellino said.

Brinks said she's heard from folks informally who say they "didn't even know what they were voting on."

For example, Brinks criticized Hall because among work project allocations was possibly $18.5 million for RX Kids, providing direct cash payments to pregnant women and parents of infants. She said she knows the program, which is right now available in 16 specific communities with a significant high poverty population – is most concerned about being able to put together dollars in new municipalities that were launching RX Kids next month.

Brinks pushed back against some emotions around Lansing that the move by the House Appropriations Committee is part of Republicans' long-term effort to zero out state budgets going forward, having department personnel justify the projects they're overseeing.

"If that was their concern, they could have had people come in and talk about the reasons why these things were funded to begin with. They could have had them come talk about while there still are some unexpended funds," Brinks said.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) told reporters this week that she gave all departments and agencies the opportunity to explain why $2.7 billion was being carried over on balance sheets, but many didn't think she was serious until Wednesday, the day of the vote.

Hall told reporters Thursday that he had wanted to cut much more than the $644.9 million, but after conversations with his caucus members and some of the agencies, he scaled back the cuts to the $644.9 million mark, about 25% of the total work project list provided by the State Budget Office.

“If it were up to me, we would have cut more,” Hall said. “We probably would have cut more, a lot more. We probably would have cut almost all of it, the $2.7 billion. Members are representing their districts, so I listened to that. Some of our members really cared about the business attraction fund, so I listened to them on that. Then we took input from the departments . . . If a department had a good reason for why something should be funded, we kept it.”