Legislator: Unspent funding from previous budgets must be examined

State Rep. Ken Borton, chair of the House budget committee responsible for natural resources and agriculture, today addressed significant work project reforms, spearheaded by House Republicans, to claw back and review unspent taxpayer dollars.

These projects are commonly funded for a budget year. However, when funds are unspent at the end of the year, the State Budget Office (SBO) must submit requests to convert unspent funds into work project accounts, a move that would allow the money to be carried forward and remain available for several more years. This year, the SBO was asking for billions to be carried over. House Republicans withheld just over $600 million for additional review.

 Historically, lawmakers have issued blanket approvals for continued funding without conducting any significant review of ongoing projects. Last week, House Republicans took an unprecedented step by voting to pause a series of the Whitmer administration’s work project requests, giving lawmakers an opportunity to review the merits of each request.

“This is all part of our effort to restore responsible spending and budget transparency in Michigan. Pressing pause on these project funds and taking a closer look at these projects is the right thing to do,” said Borton, R-Gaylord.  “Some of them have very clear problems. Others appear to be stalled for unexplained reasons. Before money gets carried forward for several more years, we want answers.”

Borton noted that the work projects were created in FY 2024-2025, the second of the two years Democrats held a trifecta in Lansing and spent through the state’s historic $9 billion surplus. He said the committee’s job now is to determine which of those projects remain worthwhile, which have been unnecessarily delayed, and which should not move forward at all.

Several of the projects were extraordinarily political in nature and faced intense scrutiny when they were first announced. The previous Democrat Trifecta approved funding for welfare and legal representation for illegal immigrants, radical nonprofits pushing DEI on kids, electric vehicle chargers that were never built, tampons in boys’ bathrooms, and the failing IT department for the secretary of state.

“A past Legislature decided to make this money available, and recipients failed to use those dollars in a timely manner. Now, our current Legislature has a responsibility to review and assess the justifications for these projects and determine why funding wasn’t utilized properly in the first place,” Borton said. “Some of these projects were a clear misuse of state resources. I’m glad the administrators of these wasteful programs were so inept that they failed to ever spend the dollars they were awarded. Their sheer incompetence should not be rewarded with continued funding. Just because other lawmakers agreed to these absurd ideas does not immediately mean they will continue to receive a stamp of approval.”

Borton added that there are several good projects that saw funding withheld for further review. He said the comprehensive approach to the review process taken by House Republicans ensures that every project, even the ones most abhorrent to Republicans, is treated fairly. Essentially, if funding was not used in the allotted timeframe, a review will occur to determine why and if continued funding should be allowed.

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