Pork Spending Drops To $275.8M; Who Got What?

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/08/2025) The Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget signed Tuesday includes 200 legislative earmarks valued at $275.4 million, far less than the $2 billion in special projects found in the FY 2024 budget when the state was awash with federal COVID spending. MIRS’ spreadsheet outlining all the projects can be found here.

Cutting back on legislative pork was a high priority for House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township), whose Republican caucus partook in some spending, but not nearly as much as the last couple of years. Also, unlike prior years, the public got a look at who was getting what ahead of time, even if it was only a few hours ahead of time in the case of the Senate.

The Mackinac Center calculates its local project awards slightly different than MIRS and came up with $360 million in local projects. However, the upshot was still the same – the state is spending less on special local projects than they have.

Earlier this week, The Detroit News reported $462 million in 153 earmark spending grants, but $250 million of that total is coming from the RX Kids mother-infant program run out of Michigan State University that MIRS didn't include in its spreadsheet.

Instead, MIRS counted special earmarks in the entire $81 billion budget and not just in the Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) portion of the omnibus spending bill. Nearly all the items were included in a Senate document released hours before the chamber passed the budget. House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said forcing the Senate Democrats to reveal who was requesting the Legislatively Directed Spending Items (LDSI) was one of the hardest negotiating items of the cycle and the reason why a continuation budget wasn't signed until 4 a.m. on Oct. 1.

Hall at his press conference on Tuesday said that his caucus was not going to support any budget that didn't follow the House rules on transparency.

Another subtle change in the process was that many LDSIs were plainly written in the budget. A firetruck for Springfield Township was written in the budget as such, as opposed to the spending item being masked behind population numbers. (For example, a fire apparatus for a township with a population of between 2,500 and 5,000 in a county with a population of 35,000 and 40,000.)

James Hohman from the Mackinac Center questioned whether the lawsuit filed by the free-market think tank in Midland had something to do with the change. The Mackinac Center argues that any budget with these local earmarks must be passed with two-thirds support to adhere to a constitutional requirement in Article 4, Section 30 for all spending “of public money or property for local or private purposes." The Mackinac Center also challenged other portions of the passage of legislative pork.

Who Got What?

The Senators saw slightly more than half of $275.8 million in earmarks ($144.7 million) go for their requested projects while the House had 45 percent of the dollars ($125 million) go to their projects.

All told, Democrats received 56.8 percent of the pork while Republicans got 41.2 percent of the spending. The Department of Transportation also received a separate earmark.

In terms of caucuses, the Senate Democrats recorded the highest amount with $128.1 million. Every member of their 19-member caucus received at least one project. The biggest recipient was Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit), the chair of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) budget. She received 15 different earmarks for a combined $29.5 million, which included $8.5 million for opioid treatment programs in a pair of communities.

Behind her was the chair of the Senate K-12 budget, Sen. Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton), who got 12 projects worth a combined $21 million, and Sen. Mary Cavanagh (D-Redford Twp.), who also got 12 projects worth a combined $15.6 million.

They were followed by the House Republicans who scored $94.8 million in earmarked projects for 37 of their members, including nearly all of their freshmen in competitive seats. Rep. Steve Frisbie (R-Battle Creek) had six projects worth a combined $5.125 million funded, which included a $3.3 million bridge repair, fire protection walls, tasers for the Calhoun County Sheriff's Department, a carport for Springport police, body cameras for Albion Police and sexual assault training.

Rep. Ron Robinson (R-Utica), Rep. Kathy Schmaltz (R-Jackson), Rep. Nancy DeBoer (R-Holland), Rep. Karl Bohnak (R-Negaunee) and Mark Tisdel (R-Rochester) also all got projects in their districts.

House Democrats received $28.5 million of the earmarks for 20 members, including a couple of members in competitive districts – Rep. Jennifer Conlin (D-Ann Arbor) and Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren). The Senate Republicans got $19.3 million spread across six members including their two most politically vulnerable incumbents — Rep. Mark Huizenga (R-Walker) and Rep. Michael Webber (R-Rochester Hills).

Huizenga scored $5 million for an opioid hearing and recovery program and another $1 million for Mary Free Bed.