Michigan Senate Appropriations Chair Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, leads discussion Wednesday on a proposal to institute earmark transparency rules. (Susan J. Demas, screenshot photo)

In a move that shows the government budget cycle is never truly over, appropriators in the Michigan Senate on Wednesday took their first steps toward instituting the House’s earmark transparency rules into state law.

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee had a hearing for Senate Bill 596, which would amend Michigan’s Management and Budget Act to set conditions under which earmarks are considered before they are placed in a final budget proposal in either chamber of the Legislature.

The conditions under SB 596 would include the name of the lawmaker introducing the earmark, the total amount requested, t

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