Lawsuit: Michigan lawmaker pet project grants violate constitution

• The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is suing Michigan to block millions of dollars special grants 
• Two grants awarding $2.5 million for professional baseball parks in  Lansing and Utica are central to the lawsuit
• Lawmakers from both parties have used the grants, often approved late in budget sessions, to fund local priorities without much public review

A lawsuit filed this week alleges Michigan lawmakers violated the state Constitution through a secretive process that has steered billions of taxpayer dollars to pet projects.

The suit from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free market, nonprofit think tank, targets $2.5 million in grants for two baseball fields approved last year. The suit alleges the spending violated rules that prohibit lawmakers from approving “private or local” projects unless they are approved by two-thirds of both the House and Senate.

Last year, the state budget passed the House 56-54 and the Senate 21-17, both far below a supermajority.

Michigan legislative rules have allowed lawmakers from both parties to fund pet projects with little to no oversight. Since 2018, the earmarks have grown from $100 million to more than $1 billion the past three years.

“We’re not going after any party here. We’re going after an institution,” said Patrick Wright, an attorney with the Mackinac Center.

“The Legislature needs to do it properly. There’s a constitution involved. It needs to be followed.”

Related:

• Pet project day in Lansing: Lawmakers seek $3.3B for pools, roads and more
• Former legislative aide charged with embezzlement in $25M Clare earmark scandal
• Nessel: ‘Grave concerns,’ but no more charges in $25M Michigan earmark probe

The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity declined comment, citing the pending litigation. The Michigan Attorney General’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

While the suit only targets two grants, it conceivably could jeopardize hundreds of millions in projects for nonprofits, parks, cities, townships and counties.

The Michigan Court of Claims lawsuit focuses on Jackson Field in Lansing, which is owned by the city and home to the Lugnuts, and Jimmy John’s Field in Utica, which is privately owned and home to four minor league teams.

Neither is named specifically in the grants, but the Mackinac Center alleges both projects are written in such a way that their beneficiary is unmistakable.

A $1.5 million grant awarded to Jimmy John’s Field, for instance, could only benefit “a ballpark located in a city with a population between 5,000 and 5,500 in a county with a population between 800,000 and 900,000 according to the most recent federal decennial census.”

Only Utica meets that description. The $1 million Lansing grant was written in a similar fashion.

The state constitution first addressed such spending over 175 years ago, in 1850, the Mackinac Center said, and called for such spending only when a super-majority of members agreed.

Since then, Wright said lawmakers too often “fell short of the transparency and accountability that taxpayers deserve.” 

Critics have slammed the grants for the lack of transparency and the timing: they’re often unveiled in the last hours of a legislative session and tucked into massive spending bills when no one has a chance to review the spending.

Steve Johnson, a former west Michigan representative, has long railed against the process that he said was about “giving these freebies away.”

“That’s just not good practice. You’re buying somebody’s vote with other people’s money,” he told Bridge Michigan.

The lack of oversight has led to numerous allegations of impropriety. 

Last week, David Coker Jr., a onetime aide to former House Speaker Jason Wentworth was charged with multiple felonies for allegedly steering one grant to his personal benefit. 

Coker faces allegations he bought gold, silver and platinum with money lawmakers intended for a health and fitness center in Clare. Wentworth was not implicated in the case, Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

Her office is also investigating two other grants that lawmakers had previously approved.

In the 2023 budget, there was at least $1.4 billion of “11th hour” spending that no committee had considered before it was approved, according to Bob Schneider, a senior research associate for the Citizens Research Council of Michigan and a former director of the state budget office.

“These are kind of absurd, all that money going out without any evaluation,” Schneider said.

He lauded recent moves by the state House to require lawmakers to make public their grant requests before any discussion on spending.