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When lawmakers finalized Michigan’s $82.5 billion 2025 budget behind closed doors, they handed out $1 billion to unvetted projects favored by politicians.
The handouts range from $10 million for a Frankenmuth youth sports complex to $2 million for a project to flip a former corrections site in Grand Traverse County into a whiskey business.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is breaking those projects down one by one.
CapCon has written more than a dozen stories about what we call pork: $13 million to museums, $9.1 million to religious organizations and $2.3 million to orchestras.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer touted her “kitchen table budget” that gives $25 million to electric vehicle charging stations, sends $10 million to the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing and spends $3 million on e-bikes.
CapCon discovered that a Saginaw lawmaker earmarked $1.9 million to fix an elementary school pool. The costs of other projects added up quickly.
By the time the 2024-25 fiscal year is over, the state will have whittled a $9 billion surplus down to $350 million, CapCon reported.
We raised questions about whether the budget giving $250,000 to a private school violated the 1970s Blaine Amendment.
The 2025 budget is “totally out of whack,” Rep. Cam Cavitt, R-Cheboygan, told CapCon.
“Taxpayers want quality schools, safe communities, and smooth, stable infrastructure,” Cavitt said. “But the Democrat majority blew funds on zoos, pro baseball stadiums, theaters, and other completely unnecessary pork projects, many of them in a few politically connected areas. I voted against this waste of tax dollars that should have been invested in real priorities or returned to the people of Michigan.”
Whether CapCon is shedding light on what’s in the state’s budget or drawing attention to legislation moving in Lansing, we are dedicated to ensuring that you know how your tax dollars are being spent.
