By Kate Stockrahm
Michigan’s House Appropriations Committee voted to cancel roughly $645 million in allocated but as-yet unspent state funding from its 2025 budget on Wednesday. What that means for Flint organizations that were promised those funds remains unclear even to other state lawmakers.
Wednesday’s House budget committee vote, which cancelled hundreds of millions in funding for certain projects from the state’s FY 2025 budget, stands to impact multiple Flint organizations – though how many, and how much, remains a mystery.
“Part of the situation is that there’s a large line item that had numerous different projects within it that was disallowed,” Senator John Cherry, who represents Flint in the Michigan Senate, explained to East Village Magazine on Dec. 11. “And it’s not entirely clear yet what money had been encumbered and/or spent versus stuff that hadn’t been encumbered or spent as of yet. That information is not available.”
In essence, the Republican-led House budget committee voted to cancel certain funding that was allocated in the state’s FY25 budget but not yet spent by the organizations or projects to which it had been allocated. Therefore, knowing exactly who is impacted, and how much money they’ve lost, is still being parsed out by policymakers and lobbyists across the state.
But while the impacts of the vote on Flint organizations remain unclear, Senator Cherry did explain how it happened at all: a provision in the state’s Management and Budget Act.
“What happens every year is the State Budget Office submits a list of projects that didn’t have statutory work project authority for which they are asking for work project authority,” Cherry said.
More simply, some projects have built-in language in the state budget that allows them to use their funding beyond the fiscal year in which it was allocated. Other projects don’t. So, each year, the governor submits a list of the projects that didn’t have that built-in budget language to the House and Senate appropriations committees to get the “okay” for their allocated funding to be used beyond that fiscal year.
“Absent any action by the legislature that work project authority is automatically granted,” Cherry explained, adding that some projects have not been allowed in the past after discussion and warning, but this vote has never been used “in a blanket way like this” in the past.
“Now either chamber can disapprove work project authority on their own,” Cherry continued. “And what happened yesterday is the House Appropriations Committee, without any discussion or information provided on what they were voting on, voted to disapprove work project authority for a variety of various line items that had been requested. Those funds will now lapse, and any projects that weren’t completed during the fiscal year no longer receive funding.”
Cherry said he was still sorting out which budget-funded projects in Flint could be affected by the House vote. But, according to documents reviewed by EVM, they may include multiple local youth programs, small business services, and two large development projects, among others.
One eliminated line-item Cherry was certain of, however, was a cut from the school aid budget — funding allocated to the Flint Community Schools District to provide services to children affected by the Flint Water Crisis.
“That was one of the ones that they disapproved,” Cherry said. “So I can tell you whatever money was left there is now gone from the FY25 budget.”
That understanding prompted Cherry to give a speech this morning on the chamber floor, where he admonished his colleagues in the House who said the funding cancellation vote was in favor of cutting “waste,” “fraud,” and “abuse.”
“I see that one of the things that was not removed was a bridge replacement in Hillsdale County,” Cherry said. “I never drive through Hillsdale County personally. This does not affect me or my constituents really one way or another, but I don’t begrudge the fact that there’s a bridge in Hillsdale County that needs to be replaced. But for some reason, it seems some of my legislative colleagues in the House feel that they need to deny help to kids facing lead poisoning in Genesee County.”
When asked about whether clauses in individual contracts with the organizations whose funding was cancelled yesterday could mitigate the impact of the House vote, Cherry said it’s all still very unclear.
“Yes, there may be contracts in place, and the state may no longer honor those contracts,” he said. “But I don’t know for certain yet because this is a very unprecedented situation.”
Cherry also clarified that while early reporting confirmed an $18.5 million funding cut for Rx Kids, a cash payment program for pregnant mothers and babies launched in Flint in 2024, that money was allocated to program sites outside of the City of Flint.
East Village Magazine also reached out to the office of Representative Cynthia Neeley, who represents Flint in the Michigan House, for this story. We did not receive a response by press time.
