In 2023, Michigan lawmakers slipped $1.8 billion in pork-barrel projects into the state budget during last-minute, closed-door negotiations — spending that had not appeared in the public versions of either the House or Senate bills. That’s not how budgeting is supposed to work. Thanks to new transparency laws the Legislature itself passed, and the governor signed, it’s also not how budgeting will work anymore.

The new rules are simple but powerful: any lawmaker who wants a project funded must post the details — who gets the money and what it’s for — on a public website at least 45 days before the Legislature can approve it. They must also explain how the spending benefits the broader public, not just their own district.

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