May 15, 2026 | This Week in Government: Hall Talks the Need for Selfridge Funding, Cutting Back on Earmarks and Housing Legislation During Wednesday Presser

With the May Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference on Friday, and some lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pointing to a June 1 deadline for the state to approve additional funding for the Selfridge Air National Guard Base, House Speaker Matt Hall on Wednesday made the case for the Legislature to pass a supplemental sooner rather than later.

He said negotiations on the supplemental are ongoing, and although he would prefer a clean supplemental, it was more important that the funds be immediately available.

“The Senate supplemental, the way it’s structured, the money would not become available for the runway construction until October of this year,” he said. “To meet the construction deadline of getting this done … we really needed to begin that construction in March.”

If the construction begins by June, Hall said it was still possible to have the runway built before Trump leaves office.

“The reason for that is a new president is very likely to reopen this decision, delay it for years and years, and then move the fighter jets somewhere else,” Hall said. “The Air Force did not want this. It took President Trump and our secretary of war to override the Air Force to make this happen … it would be subject to another decision by the military, and most people think it won’t come to Michigan.”

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee last month approved $162 million to improve and extend the runway at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. The funding request, which was made by U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township, is expected to come to a floor vote on Friday.

At the state level, both the House and the Senate have put forward a supplemental that would provide $152 million for Selfridge, though the Senate supplemental also includes additional funding for Medicaid and other spending items, totaling $1 billion.

Hall objected to the Senate’s supplemental, as passed.

“We have to stop the Senate Democrats from using funds that are tied up until October,” he said. “The Democrats want to basically take funding that’s over budgeted now, wait for it to expire in October, and then when it becomes available in October use it to fund Selfridge. … At that point, we’re just going to have to give up on the mission.”

Hall also discussed Tuesday’s Court of Claims ruling, in which Judge Michael Gadola granted a preliminary injunction to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in a lawsuit challenging the validity of two state enhancement grants that argued lawmakers needed to pass the funds with a two-thirds majority because they serve a local purpose (See Gongwer Michigan Report, May 12, 2026).

Hall said he agreed with the Court of Claims decision.

“They have a more limited purpose, and therefore, under Michigan’s Constitution, they should have been subject to a higher threshold,” Hall said. “That’s why stating the public purpose is so important as we’re going through these requests, and we’re reading these forms, and now that public purpose is even more important … because that public purpose is going to determine whether this is subject to a majority vote or whether this is subject to a supermajority vote.”

If the ruling stands, Hall said it would likely shape the way the House approaches the budget.

“If it has a true public purpose, then it will be a majority vote, but if it’s actually truly a narrow purpose, we’ll probably seek to remove those,” he said. “If there is, for some reason, something that has a limited public purpose, then it would be subject to a higher threshold.”

Hall said he wanted earmark spending to become rarer.

“This opinion … gives us more to think about as we’re interpreting public purpose,” Hall said.

Negotiations on the supplemental are ongoing, Hall said, and although his preference is for a clean supplemental, Hall said the most important thing was for the money to be available immediately.

Finally, Hall discussed the House Republican property tax proposal and the Senate’s upcoming vote on housing legislation during his Wednesday press conference.

Hall said House Republicans were continuing to build consensus on their property tax proposal.

“We’re building consensus on the local level very soon, and then, as we’re moving forward on the zoning regulations,” Hall said.

Local zoning regulations make it difficult for developers to build housing people can afford, Hall said.

“We’ve got to give them better guidance here so that they’re not driving up the cost of housing,” Hall said.

Although there will likely still be changes to the housing bills before the House Government Operations Committee tomorrow, Hall said he plans to move the package through the House quickly to get it to the Senate and then to the governor.

“We have to be collaborative,” he said.

Independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan released his plan for handling data centers, the upstart issue of the 2026 midterm cycle in Michigan, if he’s elected this fall: executive orders signed on his first day in office to set a uniform standard across the state for transparency and regulatory measures.

Duggan’s campaign rolled out its data center agenda Wednesday, drawing upon the former Detroit mayor’s experience shepherding large-scale development projects through the process of community approval during his time in office to emphasize how he would approach the state’s role in overseeing what’s become a rapid expansion in controversial projects over the past year.

“Detroit’s recovery has been driven by $10 billion in major projects, from Michigan Central, to Amazon, to Henry Ford Hospital, and every one of those projects got approved faster because Detroit embraced the local community and gained their support first,” the campaign said in a Wednesday press release. “Treating local communities with respect and openness will facilitate the orderly building of data centers in communities where they are most suited.”

Among the regulations Duggan would institute via executive action if he’s elected: large data center developers would have to pay 100% of the costs associated with their power infrastructure under an “ironclad agreement” guaranteeing the ratepayers in surrounding communities won’t bear any of a data center’s costs; closed-loop systems or “equally environmentally safe cooling methods” will be contractually required to limit water usage; agreements between developers of data centers and public utilities must be shared with the public and redactions prohibited; and community approval will be required for a project to proceed or the state will foot the bill for its legal defense against a developer.

“The local community’s approval will be required,” Duggan’s campaign said. “Local communities will not be bullied. In the event the developer sues a local community for refusing to site a data center, the State of Michigan will provide the local community the resources to defend that lawsuit.”

That provision of Duggan’s plan, had it been a policy in place in 2025, likely would have acted as a check against the Oracle-OpenAI hyperscale data center being constructed by Related Digital in Saline Township. The initial request by Related Digital to rezone a massive parcel of agricultural land for the data center was rejected by Saline Township’s zoning commission and township board, and residents voiced overwhelming opposition to the project, but the company sued and a settlement was reached in a matter of months.

“Anytime a site is proposed, the state will immediately make available legal resources and expertise if the community requests the assistance,” the campaign said. “The state will act to provide the local community the resources to level the playing field in its negotiation with the developer.”

Some Saline Township residents have maintained their commissioners were “sued into submission” since Related Digital was backed by two multibillion-dollar companies which would have been able to sustain a lawsuit for much longer than the local government could have. It’s unclear what the cost to the state might be to support similar lawsuits mounted by data center developers against communities who try to reject them, many of which are in some of Michigan’s most rural regions.

Duggan’s campaign said he will be committed to this plan and intends to discuss it widely on the campaign trail.

Michigan has a battery problem, according to a new analysis commissioned by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

The analysis found that residents face widespread confusion regarding how to dispose of batteries and face limited recycling access, which leads to more than 10,000 tons of batteries sitting in landfills.

The report was conducted by Resource Recycling Systems and highlighted opportunities to recover valuable materials, strengthen domestic supply chains, and reduce environmental and safety risks, if the state establishes the right infrastructure and policies.

“Resident surveys indicated many residents are confused about where and how to recycle batteries,” Elisa Seltzer, NextCycle Michigan program director with RRS, said in a statement. “This is reflective of the current state of end-of-life battery management in Michigan, with over 10,000 tons of batteries in the waste stream, limited access to drop-off sites, lack of clear information, and inconsistent program funding.”

The analysis focused on common household batteries – AAA, AA, C, D, 9V, button-cell, and coin types – and excluded automotive and electric vehicle batteries.

The data showed the system for disposing of batteries is fragmented and struggles to keep pace with growing battery use. Improper disposal can cause fires and environmental contamination, and it also prevents critical minerals that could be reused in manufacturing from being recovered.

Nearly everyone surveyed as part of the analysis indicated they were open to recycling batteries, though, with 95% saying they would recycle them if convenient drop-offs and clear guidance were available.

The report outlines several priority areas for improving battery recycling, including establishing an advisory group to guide policy and program development, assessing and expanding existing recovery infrastructure, exploring extended producer responsibility legislation for sustainable funding, improving access to drop off locations, coordinating statewide education and outreach and growing capacity for battery recovery and processing.

In response, EGLE is developing a comprehensive strategy to improve battery circularity in the state, which will incorporate the analysis results and input from industry stakeholders, local governments and community organizers.

“Batteries – both consumer and electric vehicle batteries – are a unique opportunity for Michigan based on our strong roots in industry and the investments we’ve made toward a circular economy,” said a statement from Julie Staveland, assistant director of EGLE’s Materials Management Division. “We are well positioned to implement best practices for proper battery management to mitigate safety and environmental risks while reaping the benefits of jobs across the battery recovery and recycling value chain.”

Later this year, NextCycle Michigan, EGLE’s initiative to advance circular economy solutions, will launch a Battery Solutions Accelerator, with the goal of finding new solutions for recycling batteries.

Years of underfunding and prioritizing car travel over all else at the state level posed challenges to public transportation services around Michigan prior to 2026, but they were consistent, known challenges, advocates said Thursday. Then gas prices rose to $5 a gallon.

Now, amid a slew of costs made exorbitant because of external factors mostly out of the control of the transit sector itself, the people behind Michigan’s local public transportation networks are appealing to lawmakers to provide them with an investment increase in this year’s state budget – or, they said, people in some of the state’s most vulnerable conditions and underserved areas will be left without the services they rely on within the next year.

“A year ago, fuel prices were an average of $3 per gallon, and now they are close to $5 per gallon, and still increasing. Vehicles get an estimated 10 to 14 miles per gallon. This raises our budget cost from the proposed 420,000 for 2026 to an anticipated cost closer to 600,000 this year alone,” Western Oakland Transit Authority Executive Director Kim Viener said. “Where do those funds come from? Or do we have to cut rides? I don’t want to be the one to tell all those riders that I’m sorry we can’t take you today because we don’t have the money to pay for the gas.”

Transit officials and groups representing the communities they serve are taking their concerns to Lansing, where they say the support has been depleted for some time now.

“By law and prior practice, our state support used to cover half or more of local transit expenses. That support now amounts to less than one-third, and that gap is showing up in the services and the strain,” Michigan Public Transit Association Executive Director John Dulmes said during a Thursday press call. “With agency services already stretched, now is not the time for our state budget to underfund critical local transit services.”

Whether it’s the price of putting gas in a bus, paying to have maintenance done on vehicles costing more than it did two years ago, loss of grant dollars that literally and figuratively drove local transit systems or difficulties retaining drivers and operational employees, industry leaders said Michigan’s transit systems are in critical need of investment from the state and hope to see firm support from lawmakers as budget negotiations continue.

Transit organizations, environmental groups, and local nonprofits partnered to send a letter to members of the Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday imploring them to consider the consequences of another year of underfunding: without a meaningful increase in the upcoming year, they wrote, many transit agencies will be “forced to make difficult choices, including cutting bus routes or service hours, reducing evening, weekend, or rural service, limiting service for seniors, people with disabilities, and workers without cars and delaying or canceling planned improvements.”

Budget proposals from the Senate and governor recommended increasing local bus operating funds to $315 million, but the House budget includes a cut to $290 million, which sparked concerns among advocates that a compromise will be reached at a middle point somewhere between, ultimately resulting in stagnant funding.

“We urge the Legislature to strengthen Local Bus Operating funding to at least $330 million to support current services and address growing community needs, which is achievable with existing restricted revenues,” the coalition said in the letter to lawmakers.

The groups are also requesting that no additional dollars are directed outside the Community Transit Fund and expansions to the state’s intercity bus networks, where they exist. Advocates said if lawmakers are serious about moving the needle on affordability issues they frequently reference in policy discussions, they should be prioritizing public transit.

“Reliable public transit is a critical economic development asset. There’s the need for reliable ways for workers to get to jobs in sectors like healthcare and manufacturing, and when transit funding is strong, it really does expand that labor market and allow residents access to more opportunities without being limited by car ownership, which we know is a key affordability issue,” Michigan Environmental Council Director Ross Gavin said. “If we’re really serious about building that competitive economy and creating sustainable, resilient communities, then public transit funding increases can’t be treated as optional.”

Unemployment Insurance Agency Director Jason Palmer testified before the House Oversight State and Local Assistance Programs Subcommittee on Thursday to provide an update on the strides the agency has made since the pandemic overloaded the system six years ago, which led accidental overpayments and fraud.

Palmer said people are often confused why UIA would pay them and then hold them ineligible.

“The answer to that is a bedrock principle of unemployment insurance law: we have to constantly balance paying benefits timely with program integrity and our (U.S. Department of Labor) core measures,” he said. “That balancing act means that we have to rely on claimants providing full and accurate information when they file a claim.”

Palmer said collections on overpayments made during the pandemic have restarted, and the agency has collected $60 million.

“Our overpayment recovery rate has returned to acceptable levels, from the 5% or below that,” he said.

Not all the people who are in collections for overpayment committed fraud. They are people who did not verify their employment or their income or people who did not search for work or those who had earnings but didn’t report them. Many of the issues with verification or reporting derived from discrepancies between state and federal emergency policies.

“Some of those people misreported or misrepresented their attachment to the workforce, but it wouldn’t rise necessarily to the level of fraud,” Palmer said. “It is people who received benefits for which they were not entitled and did not have a circumstance. That was one of those confusions between federal programs and state programs.

Palmer said there are multiple chances for claimants to appeal or protest the collections, request a waiver or start paying back the debt, and the most anyone would have to pay at one time is $125.

Since lifting the collections pause three months ago, Palmer said the UIA has received 40,000 waiver requests. About 30,000 have been processed.

He did not have data on how many of those waivers claimed hardship. Hardship, Palmer said, is established by household income versus the poverty line, and includes assets.

Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, D-East Lansing, asked Rep. Jason Woolford, R-Howell, what direction the committee was heading based on the unemployment hearings.

“Do you support legislation that would require UIA to notify claimants when they are eligible for waivers, guarantee their appeal rights on the waiver decisions and prohibit UIA from collecting improperly given benefits?” she said.

Woolford said he did not want to discuss what he supported legislatively during the committee.

“I just wanted to get an idea of where we were moving with these hearings,” Tsernoglou said. “And, if you perhaps would partner with me in requesting a discharge of SB 700, which is also HB 5393, and HB 5394, which could help, as you described earlier, we could help people with their unemployment issues, but we can also discuss that at another time.”

Later in the committee, Woolford said he would be introducing legislation, HB 5375, that would forgive interest and penalties on repayment amounts for people who were overpaid by UIA.

“Government should never be so cold it crushes innocent people, but government also can’t be so careless that it allows fraud and abuse to flourish unchecked,” Woolford said. “This is why this oversight committee matters.”