Overview:

- Michigan House Republicans have cut nearly $645 million in state agency funding, a decision made without public debate.
- The cuts, which House Democrats have labeled a "corrupt abuse of power," threaten essential services for vulnerable groups, including children with cancer and communities still recovering from the Flint water crisis.
- While some Republicans have voiced opposition, Democrats are rallying to counteract the decision through new legislation and possible legal action.

by BEN SOLIS
Michigan Advance

Organizations that have relied on Michigan state agency work project funding learned Thursday that the House Republican vote to disapprove nearly $645 million in agency spending will be harmful to key services aided by the state.

GOP members of the House Appropriations Committee, who control the majority, voted along party lines to employ a little-used provision in the Management and Budget Act that allows either House or Senate appropriators to disapprove any newly requested work projects. The vote allowed the committee, chaired by state Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Township), to cut more than a half-billion dollars in current work project spending.

Agency work projects have long been a target for Bollin, but especially Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township), who began threatening the funding early in the 2025-26 fiscal year budget negotiations that ended in October after a temporary government shutdown.

One major point of controversy, aside from the size of the cuts and their impacts, was the fact that the House committee did not debate or hear testimony prior to voting.

That continued to be a sore spot in the aftermath of the decision on Thursday morning when the House Democratic Caucus held a press conference denouncing the cuts and discussing their available options, which included passing new legislation and potential litigation against their House GOP colleagues.

House Minority Leader and state Rep. Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said the committee sat at ease for seven hours on Wednesday so House leadership could draft the list of disapproved work projects, accusing Hall of needing that long to smooth the cuts over with his caucus so the list “wasn’t so cruel (that it) would alienate every other Republican committee member.”

“I don’t even want to imagine how spineless and cold hearted that original list was,” Puri said. “There is a difference between repeating a talking point and living a set of values. Yesterday’s vote asked every House Republican to live Matt Hall’s set of values; to put party allegiance over oath of office, to put politics over people and to put the whims of one man over the well-being of an entire state.”

Puri said that blame extends to House Republicans who haven’t spoken out against the move.

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“They are demonstrating with their actions and their silence that they do not care about you. They don’t care if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, or if you can’t afford health care, or if you’re retired on a fixed income, or if the injury you suffered while serving our country has left you unable to work,” Puri said.

State Rep. Samantha Steckloff (D-Farmington Hills), who rarely speaks to the press publicly due to numerous antisemitic comments and threats she’s endured in recent years, made it a point to stand up to Hall and Bollin’s work project cuts on Thursday because of the impact they would have on the communities she and her Democratic colleagues serve.

“Many in this room know it takes a lot for me to be here,” Steckloff said. “When they list cranial care prosthesis, what they are talking about is Wigs for Kids, an organization that provides services programs for children going through cancer. When they talk about ‘waste, fraud and abuse,’ they are now referring to … the Holocaust Memorial Center. They talk about abuse, and they are referring to the Small Talk program that provides mental health services for children who have been sexually assaulted.”

Steckloff said there was a time and a place for political talking points, but there was never a time to tell children with cancer that they amounted to waste.

Dems say GOP maneuvering was a ‘corrupt abuse of power’

State Rep. Will Snyder (D-Muskegon) said the move was one of the most “unprecedented displays of cruelty that I’ve ever seen during my time here in Lansing.”

“This budget instrument was never intended for this purpose, and using it with such haste and scale proves the dangerous nature of crossing pre-existing and long standing-lines, even if (it was) potentially legally permissible,” Snyder said. “We are just now beginning to understand the full scope of these disgusting actions.”

Snyder said the lack of discussion and transparency, philosophies Hall has repeatedly espoused in his own dealings with the budget process, was an insult on top of an injury. He added that he introduced a new bill to change the procedure so one chamber doesn’t have the ability to “take a flame to years of hard work.”

The bill will require the appropriations committees in both chambers to sign off any changes, which in the future may prevent the large cuts to programs that Hall and Bollin initiated on Wednesday. Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) and House Appropriations Committee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Twp.) speak at a press conference on work project spending. Dec. 10, 2025. | Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance.

“We’re talking about a pre-negotiated budget of nearly $650 million that, quite frankly, Senate Republicans gave them as money to affect votes for some of these things, too,” Snyder said. “I would imagine this is not how this process works.”

It’s still unclear to House Democrats on the committee as to what the House GOP had them vote on Wednesday, given that there was no resolution or legislative spending item before the committee – rather, the body was provided with a Michigan House Fiscal Agency document detailing items that leadership put forward in an odd vote to disapprove.

“We didn’t know what they were going to narrow this down to,” Snyder added.

What’s being cut?

Among the steepest eliminations in ongoing agency work projects was the $137.2 million cut from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, $192.2 million from the Department of Technology, Management and Budget, $104.1 million from the Michigan Strategic Fund, and $69.2 million from the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Democrats on Thursday zeroed in on the health and human services cuts as being potentially the most devastating, with Puri saying these were all organizations and communities that the state made promises to when they allocated this funding.

“Under different leadership, Republicans are willing to say, ‘screw you,’” Puri added. 

A little more than $18 million in work projects providing temporary assistance for needy families was taken off the board; $4 million for nurse workforce development was swiped; $1.4 million was slashed from work projects on mental health services and community outreach; and $1.6 million was cut from fiscal year 2025 funding for emergency declaration water funding, which was a primary mode of assistance to Flint, which is still regaining its footing after the catastrophic lead water crisis that continues to affect residents and area children.

What’s at stake?

As Steckloff mentioned, large portions of those approved – and now disapproved – work projects went toward community agencies, schools and local governments to address a whole host of needs.

For Flint, the total amount of resources totals $8.3 million, The Detroit News reported, as some of that money also comes from resources like the school aid fund, which saw cuts to work projects as well.

Hall, in a press conference held Wednesday following the committee’s vote, claimed that the Flint drinking water crisis was over.

State Rep. Cynthia Neeley (D-Flint) said Thursday that Hall’s assertion was untrue.

“It is just unfair, for everyone across the state, that he would do such a heinous thing,” Neeley said. “Especially to children, and especially ones that have been suffering for the last 10 years.”

Jim Ananich, a former Democratic state Senate minority leader and now the CEO of the Greater Flint Health Coalition, concurred with Neeley.

Ananich told Michigan Advance that Hall’s commentary on the Flint water crisis being over shows not only a lack of empathy for those affected, but a real ignorance on the lasting and detrimental effects of excessive lead exposure to developing children.

There has been some medical investigative work to study cancer rate clusters and kidney disease in those exposed to heavy metals like lead, but a connection there is still yet unknown. Ananich said, in that context, the events of the water crisis could extend to medical difficulties and complications for Flint residents that the state isn’t quite aware of yet.

“His ignorance and stupidity toward the topic does not mean that he actually should be speaking with authority on something,” Ananich said in an interview. “Experts that can speak about it know what lead does to a child with a still growing body.” Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich speaks at the Michigan Democratic Party’s Election Day watch party in Detroit on Nov. 8, 2022. (Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Other Democrats, and at least one Republican, call foul on work project cuts

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the majority in the Senate was developing a way to combat the cuts. She also told reporters that they have until Dec. 14 to object to work projects, and that a potential retaliatory move against the House could be in the works.

In a separate statement, Anthony said that she had not seen such a level of deliberate political cruelty in all of her time working in Lansing.

“We’re talking about bipartisan passed, already agreed upon resources to uplift new moms and their babies at the most vulnerable stage of life, funds to provide services to kids with cancer, resources to improve school infrastructure, food pantry expansions, affordable housing projects, and much more,” Anthony said. “Time and time again, I’ve said: budgets are moral documents. Not only does this political maneuver by Matt Hall and his Republican colleagues lack any ounce of humanity; it’s also completely reckless, devoid of transparency, and a slap in the face to the people of Michigan, who deserve better than this.”

Anthony added that Hall’s House leadership has eroded any remaining trust between the two chambers and the political parties that lead them. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) and House Appropriations Commitee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton). Feb. 5, 2025 | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance

Some Republicans were opposed to the cuts, including state Rep. Rylee Linting (R-Wyandotte), who said in a statement that she strongly opposed her colleagues’ vote in House Appropriations on Wednesday.

“Far too many communities are losing out on important programs, and too many good ideas are being thrown out with the bad,” Linting said. “The cuts made by the budget committee (on Wednesday) paused hundreds of state projects – both good and bad. That approach doesn’t work. They should have gone through project by project and figured out what works and what doesn’t, instead of stopping important investments and throwing them out with wasteful programs.”

Linting noted the Downriver Community Conference, which she said got caught by the tail in the Hall-Bollin work project cuts.

“That’s unacceptable,” she said. “I am going to fight like hell to get state funding for this important program back in the budget as soon as possible. I went to the Capitol to eliminate wasteful spending and give people better value for their tax dollars. But I also went to stand up for the Downriver community and make sure our needs get the attention they deserve.”

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jon King for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.

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The Michigan Advance is a hard-hitting, nonprofit news site covering politics and policy across the state. We feature in-depth stories, briefs and social media updates, as well as top-notch progressive commentary. The Advance is free of advertising and free to our readers. We wholeheartedly believe that journalists have the biggest impact by reporting close to home, explaining what’s happening in our state and communities — and why. Michigan has hundreds fewer reporters than just a couple decades ago. The result is too many stories falling through the cracks. The Advance is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. The Advance retains editorial independence.