Nomination #5 for the MHF 2026 Defender Award is all about earmarks. Earlier this month I wrote about Nomination #4.
Pork. Earmark. We all know these common words for lawmakers’ special spending on local projects.
There are more colorful names, too: slush fund, graft, cronyism, political patronage, spoils of office, back-scratching, logrolling, political favors.
In case you hadn’t heard, Lansing has a relatively new, nicely-sanitized term. They call them LDSI, short for Legislative-Directed Spending Items.
“The Senate has led the way on earmark reform”
The Senate Appropriations Committee prides itself on earmark reform, and says so often on the record in 2025.
October 2 is the big day for transparency. The chair announces the Senate’s leadership role in earmark reform, and the process begins.
All earmark items in the budget are on display. Each one clearly read out in committee with sponsor, project, and dollar amount. Everything neatly arranged in columns on the powerpoint presentation, the screen visible to the committee and viewers alike.
A million dollars here, a hundred thousand there. A few technical corrections for last year’s budget.
No item’s dollar amount strays far out of the usual range, because after all, I only vote for yours if you vote for mine. And you won’t do that if my district gets a lot more than yours.
Transparency is on a roll.
Until, right at the end, it suddenly isn’t.
“There’s one more,” says the chair, “that didn’t make the powerpoint.” And she reads from her notes.
One hundred million dollars. Senator Brinks. Rx Kids. (Regular bill-watchers will recognize the name of universal basic income that began in Flint two years ago and spread to Pontiac, Kalamazoo, greater Detroit, and parts of the UP. This earmark is intended to expand it to most of Michigan.)
The biggest earmark of all. (By far!) Unlike the rest of the list, it isn’t on the screen, or on anyone’s copy of the budget, or online.
Senator Thomas Albert sounds stunned, but still manages to ask the first important question.
It earns him Nomination #5 for the MHF 2026 Defender Award.
“Could you repeat that? Is that equal to all the other earmarks combined?”
The chair: “I haven’t counted those up yet.”
Just to be clear, I have nothing against the senator chairing this committee. She seems very nice; poised, and generally very gracious. However, this failure to know the earmark totals makes a sad contrast with the boast of earmark reform.
Watch the full hearing to catch additional high points (32 min.)
- Early on, Senator Albert wants to know whether these earmarks are already in the budget, or only in the process of being added? He gets contradictory answers. (At the 11 minute mark, and closing statement.) The contradiction is never resolved.
- The earmarks for MDHHS and LEO go on and on.
- Seriously, get a load of that list. Are we really there yet with earmark reform?
BONUS ROUND
Sen Theis asks the other vital question on Oct 8, during discussion of the Senate’s earmark reform bill. “Where’s the transparency? Because the budget just passed, and Rx Kids is suddenly up to $250 million.”
To say the chair didn’t like this break in the reform narrative is an understatement. (16 min)
Ultimately, this earmark reaches $270 million and moves to other areas of the budget, under different names.
The budget passes.
We’ve posted the Rx Kids money trail at the MHF Forum.
Edited on October 23, 2026 for clarity.
