#factsmatter, The Citizens Research Council Of Michigan Podcast

John Lindstrom and Bob Schneider discuss a topic that has been popping up increasingly among Michigan lawmakers lately: transparency and reforming the use of budget earmarks … especially “11th hour” earmarks. Lindstrom, a former reporter, editor, and publisher of Gongwer News Service, and Schneider, senior research associate for state affairs at the Citizens Research Council recall the history of end-of-session budget earmarks. “This is nothing new,” said Lindstrom. “I mean, you go back to when I first started covering the legislature when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. The last session day before Christmas, it was well understood that there was a bill called grants and transfers, which was known in the legislature as the “Christmas tree bill.”’ While ham is often associated with traditional Christmas dinners, Christmas tree bills/11th-hour earmarks are always associated with pork. Eighteen months ago, Schneider reviewed and wrote that over 65 percent of over $1.3 billion in earmarks in the FY2024 “omn