Senate R's Stung By Work Project Cuts

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/11/2025) As many as 163 community enhancement grants and infrastructure projects asked for by legislators last year were included in the $644.9 million in carryover programs and projects denied by House Republicans on Wednesday, including 20 asked for by seven Senate Republican members, according to a list obtained by MIRS.

Those senators contacted said they were not pleased to see projects designed to assist rural hospitals, roads and infrastructure get stopped midstream, but they expressed hope that the projects can get negotiated back into the budget through a supplemental spending bill early next year.

Republicans and Democrats alike were scrambling Thursday, speaking with their constituents about the status of their project that's now in the balance.

Sen. Joseph Bellino Jr. (R-Monroe) requested $3.5 million for Hillsdale Hospital, an independent rural healthcare provider that's more than an hour away from Detroit, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo.

So far, the hospital has received nearly $900,000 of the $3.5 million Bellino sponsored, and about 30 days ago, it submitted bills for more than $1.6 million.

"I'm not really happy about this because I wasn't working hard to get money for a park, for a big billionaire private business or some BS bullshit. … This is a rural hospital, and we're losing rural hospitals every year in Michigan," Bellino said. "Those people in Hillsdale, why should they have to drive three hours to go to a hospital or two hours? It's bull crap."

He called the rejection of work projects a "part of the game here in Lansing," committing to doing whatever he can to get the money back.

But on the other hand, Bellino did say he knows departments use work project money "as a slush fund," collecting interest and doling money out over three or four-year periods.

Sen. Mark Huizenga (R-Walker) sponsored $3 million for the West Michigan Sport Complex, which has been fully dispersed; $1 million for the Van Andel Institute – which hasn't received anything because it did not commensurate the expenses the money would have covered – and $1 million to expand the Krause Memorial Library in Rockford. Huizenga said following a stakeholder conversation, he learned more than $400,000 had been dispersed to the library.

"It was a complete surprise when I heard the news last night when I was driving home," Huizenga said. "I didn't, frankly, fully understand that just one chamber could do this without the other chamber supporting or the Governor."

He says the projects he's advocated for are not "Bridges to Nowhere," and he hopes there's a future supplemental where he can justify them and share how he's vetted them.

Huizenga explained he's advised stakeholders to prepare to either not receive the rest of their funding or they might not see the funding re-secured until "likely mid-February at earliest" if there's a supplemental.

No House Republicans had community enhancement grants or infrastructure grants still in the pipeline from FY 2025.