Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

House Appropriations Chair Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township, on Monday praised the Michigan Senate for adopting new transparency requirements for budget earmarks, similar to what Bollin spearheaded in the House earlier this year.

“The Senate’s decision to embrace the House’s strict budget transparency requirements is a major victory. Michigan taxpayers now have the right to scrutinize every earmark in the state budget.

“For months, the House has been leading the charge to bring sunlight to the earmark process, because hardworking Michigan taxpayers expect and deserve to know how their money is being spent. With the Senate now joining us and the governor in support, we have full agreement that earmarks must be transparent, publicly reviewed, and prohibited from flowing to for-profit companies.

“This is also a critical step forward in our budget negotiations as we approach the October 1 deadline. By ensuring every earmark is subject to public scrutiny, we are reinforcing trust in the budget process and making certain that taxpayer dollars are used wisely and responsibly.

According to House Speaker Matt Hall's office, House Resolution 14 requires that every spending item requested by legislators be publicly vetted with a real justification and be listed on a public website ahead of the vote.

The plan also banned earmarks for for-profit businesses, increased standards for non-profit recipients and protected taxpayers from conflicts of interest.

“The Hall Ethics Accountability and Transparency Plan is the most significant transparency and ethics reform in years,” said Speaker of the House Matt Hall.

“It’s no surprise to see it catching on at the Capitol. We are making real progress on budget and spending reforms during this negotiation, and this is the latest win. We already have agreements to cut waste, fraud and abuse, limit the size of state government, eliminate phantom employees hidden in department line items now reform the state’s broken earmark process. This is how we can fund our real priorities and stop the mismanagement and corruption that followed these funds for years.”