Eight months into my role as the first Director of the Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance, I find myself, for the first time, watching from the outside as budget negotiations unfold between the Michigan Legislature and Governor Whitmer.
My previous role as the Deputy Chief of Staff for State Senator John Damoose gave me tremendous insight into the budgeting process, as legislators field dozens of requests and have the very difficult task of prioritizing between many “worthy” projects. This year’s budgeting process is very different than what I have seen in the past, and I believe brings significant oversight to the benefit of Michigan taxpayers.
For the 2026-27 budget, a new law that took effect on January 1 has reoriented the process for communities and nonprofit organizations to seek funding for local projects, organizations, or municipal improvements.
The new law is an amendment to the 1984 Management and Budget Act. This amendment defines new conditions for “earmarks”, which are budget appropriations traditionally written into the state budget at the request of legislators for projects within their districts.
These appropriations must meet specific conditions to be incorporated into the budget process as a “Legislatively Directed Spending Item”, now commonly referred to in Lansing as an LDSI.
The criteria for an LDSI require that a legislator submit the request using a standardized form, which is then posted on the House and Senate web pages. A request must be submitted at least 45 days before it can be funded in a state budget. For those requests that are put in too late for consideration in the general budget, they remain on the books for the rest of the year and could be considered for funding under a supplemental budget if the legislature works on one.
The Citizens Research Council of Michigan, a nonpartisan nonprofit public affairs research organization, noted that this new process should prevent “eleventh-hour earmarks” that are traditionally included in the final budget without being reviewed at hearings or in previous versions of budget bills in the House or Senate.
Under the new process, every “Northern Caucus” member who has sponsored or co-sponsored an LDSI has secured funding for their district in the draft House budget. A wide-ranging array of projects has made it into the draft budget, totaling approximately $24,617,000 in LDSI appropriations for the region alone. This marks a significant improvement in funding and transparency over previous budget processes, with the work now landing on our Northern Caucus to keep those initial allocations whole throughout the budget conference and negotiations process.
Projects in our region included in the draft budget range from mental health care to environmental restoration – all serving northern Michigan populations.
The Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance will be assisting our members in their efforts to keep our region’s projects in place, with the hope of seeing this number the same, if not higher, in the final version. We’ll also continue advocating for funding that supports businesses in our region, such as Going PRO, Pure Michigan, and funding for the Office of Rural Prosperity, which originated as an idea from the Alliance many years ago.
While state budget negotiations are never easy with a divided government, the process is not expected to drag into the fall as it did last year. With hopes for a final budget signed into law in July, attention will turn to the August primaries and the general election in November.
This summer, the Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance will offer a complete voting resource for each of northern Michigan’s State House and Senate Districts and the statewide primaries. Following the August 4 primary, our election guide will have voter information for all the final candidates for state and federal offices.
Throughout the budget and election seasons, the Alliance will be advocating for our region’s small businesses and for programs that promote prosperity for those who work and live in northern Michigan.