Michigan healthcare freedom community forum
The 2025 Michigan House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor and Economic Opportunity Committee ramps up activity this week, meeting three days in a row with a single agenda item.
Leadership:
Rep. Nancy Jenkins-Arno (Republican) District-34
Chair
Rep. Ron Robinson (Republican) District-58
Majority Vice Chair
Rep. Jasper Martus (Democrat) District-69
Minority Vice Chair
Members
Rep. Greg VanWoerkom (Republican) District-88
Rep. Cam Cavitt (Republican) District-106
Scroll down here for House TV and the dedicated Appropriations Channel.
Meeting records will be filed here.
Tuesday, July 29 through Thursday, July 31, 2025 9:00 AM
Room 519, House Office Building
Marcus Coffin, Committee Clerk, 517-373-8080 mcoffin@house.mi.gov
AGENDA
Review of member-submitted legislatively directed spending items
OR ANY BUSINESS PROPERLY BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE
Day 1: an astounding https://youtube.com/live/P8SHaj0StNw?feature=shar e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10-hour session, beginning with an explanation of this new process with a pledge of transparency.
Day 2 & 3: Recording not available. No word yet on how long the hearings went.
Lawmakers adding to the wish list this week.
Tuesday, August 19, 2025 8:00 AM
AGENDA
Review of member-submitted legislatively directed spending items
OR ANY BUSINESS PROPERLY BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE
Individuals needing special accommodations to participate in the meeting may contact the Chair's Office.
This committee is now up to 18 hearing videos. You should be able to click and view each one.
-
Appropriations - Labor and Economic Opportunity | 18 Videos
This committee met back in June with a different agenda.
This presentation may relate to some of the many MDHHS wealth-redistribution efforts.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025 10:30 AM
AGENDA
Stakeholder Presentations on Housing Programs.
OR ANY BUSINESS PROPERLY BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE
Two more meetings this year reviewed spending items.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025 1:00 PM or after committees are given leave by the House to meet, whichever time is later
AGENDA
Hearing on Legislatively Directed Spending Items
OR ANY BUSINESS PROPERLY BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE
Wednesday, October 1, 2025 11:45 AM
AGENDA
A discussion of legislatively directed spending Items.
OR ANY BUSINESS PROPERLY BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE
Result: a 90% reduction in pork.
MichCapCon tracked this and other procedural changes, and reports here on the impact of public awareness.
State budget contains fewer earmarks than in years past
New procedures in place for requesting earmarks, receiving funds
John LaPlante | November 19, 2025
The 2025-26 Michigan budget that took effect last month contains many fewer earmarks than budgets of recent years, and it brings some significant changes to the earmarking process.
Most of the dollars in the state budget are allocated to various state departments through broad spending categories. But some spending goes to projects or entities that individual lawmakers specifically request. These items, variously called pork projects, earmarks, or legislatively directed spending items, came to just over $5 million in the 2015-16 budget
Legislators had requested $4 billion in earmarks for the 2025-26 budget. But the enacted budget included only $360 million in earmarks, according to James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Hohman sought to identify the purpose or recipient of those earmarks but could not account for 29 projects that represented $53.8 million in earmarked spending.
MIRS News reported that the state took a different approach to earmarks this year. “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.” A second change, it said, was the volume of earmarks. MIRS said there were 200 projects valued at $275.4 million, in contrast with $2 billion in the 2024 budget.
Though MIRS and Hohman found a similar trend, they used different methods in their analysis, leading to different results. MIRS “went through looking for boilerplate language devoting cash to single local or private entities,” Hohman replied when a colleague asked him why he and MIRS came up with different numbers. “MIRS tracked the requests posted on the legislature’s site as part of the new pork transparency rules.”
The Michigan Senate had a larger influence than the House in establishing the earmarked funds. Roughly 50% of the earmarked dollars senators requested made it into the budget, MIRS reported, but only 45% of those requested by representatives did.
Democratic legislators made a larger impact on the budget, with 56.8% of the value of their requests ending up in the budget, MIRS said. The comparable number for legislative Republicans was 41.2% of their requests. Democrats control the governor’s office as well as the Senate while Republicans control only the House.
The new budget introduced a new procedure for allocating earmarks. Starting in January 2025, members of the House have publicly reported what they call legislatively directed spending items. The Senate now has its own version, with the first reports being made Sept. 30.
Michigan Capitol Confidential has used many of the House’s disclosure documents this year to tell readers the details of various projects. It will now draw on Senate documents as well to tell members of the public how their representatives are spending their funds.
State agencies will distribute earmarks differently in the new budget. Recipients had received half of their earmarks up-front, MIRS reported, but now they will need to submit requests for reimbursement.
Earmarks go to a variety of purposes, including storm sewers, public safety, city parks, local roads, health clinics, food banks, social service agencies, day care centers, homeless shelters and a public library. Roughly $31 million will go to nonprofit organizations yet to be disclosed.
Get MHF Insights
News and tips for your healthcare freedom.
We never spam you. One-step unsubscribe.
Sponsors
J & DE Family Charitable Fund
Friends
of MHF
Kelly Grotendiek
Philip Harbach
Dale Johnson
Drs. Jeffrey and Joni Jones
Vickie Kahle
Tammy Kipen
Marlin & Kathy Klumpp
Melanie Kurdys
Ruth Nobel
Patrick Peterson
Stephanie Poortenga
Jeanne Smit
Ben and Hope Staal
John Tuinstra
Jacki VanHuis
Sandy Walker
Sign Up for MHF Insights to keep up on the latest in Michigan Health Policy
