Rarely-used budget move puts zoo, other Lansing projects in limbo

What if Potter Park Zoo lost its accreditation because it couldn’t renovate the home of the big cats and lemurs? Does Lansing’s only zoo become a petting zoo?

A scenario that didn’t seem possible a couple of years ago is back on the table after a state House panel denied the funding stream for dozens of projects, big and small, in the name of “waste, fraud and abuse.”

Potter Park was one of about 20 Lansing-area projects that may see previously agreed-upon state money slip away after House Republicans used an arcane legal maneuver last week to slam the brakes on money approved long ago.

Unless Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cooks up a good legal reason why not to follow the House’s directive, Ingham County government may lose $10 million in state money that state Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) scored for them last term to renovate the feline/primate building to save the Zoo’s accreditation.

The zoo isn’t the only entity in a lurch. As the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Anthony made sure lots of Lansing projects were taken care of last term when the Democrats controlled the House, Senate and the Governor’s office.

Alex Brace, the executive director of Small Talk Children’s Advocacy Center in Lansing, assists young sexual abuse survivors with a variety of services. His shop was awarded a four-year, $1.8 million grant last year. He only used $100,000 of the grant this year, but was ramping up services next year and beyond.

Now, he said he’s forced to scramble, possibly lay off staff and suspend services, which will hurt sexual abuse survivors.

Also in the balance, according to the only document we’ve been able to get our hands on: $5 million in infrastructure help for CATA, $5 million for the Board of Water and Light’s Steam Conversion Project, $5 million for the Eaton County Bank Intercounty Drain project and $2 million the state was picking up to hook up Windsor Township to BWL.

Lansing schools are supposed to get $2.5 million for some infrastructure projects. The Lansing Lugnuts were getting $1 million. There’s $500,000 for the LMTS Community Center, $320,000 for the Building 21 Teen Center and $150,000 for Holt Schools.

The City Rescue Mission received state money, too, from 2023-24, but they received their last state payment the other day. Got in just under the wire.

House Republicans had no power to stop any of the projects approved in 2023-24 until now.

Under a 1984 law, the State Budget Office must inform the House and Senate spending committees, by mid-November, about which “work projects” are being carried over into the next fiscal year.

If either committee has a problem with the list, they have 30 days to reject all or some of the spending. The money of anything rejected goes to the state’s General Fund.

To the best of anyone’s knowledge, the tool was used once a few years ago. The total redirection was $18 million. This time, House Republicans spiked $644.9 million.

To be fair, no governor has slid money from one year to the next, like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has. Pre-COVID, before the federal government shoved billions Michigan’s way, maybe a few hundred million dollars passed through as a work project.

No big deal.

This year, it was $2.7 billion and House Republicans said enough was enough.

“All these Taj Mahals that she planned to build in Lansing? They’re all gone. And I don’t feel bad about that one bit,” said House Speaker Matt Hall.

Hall is using some of this spending as a negotiating tool. Projects like Potter Park and “Small Talk” should go through his Hall Ethics Accountability and Transparency (HEAT) public hearing process, he said.

Next year, Anthony could try to renegotiate at least some of them back into existence.

Meanwhile, Whitmer’s team is looking into whether the 1984 law the House R’s used is constitutional. They wonder if House R’s followed the correct procedures in killing the money. 

But if Whitmer isn’t able to find a way to tie up these denials, renegotiation is the only way to save all of these projects.

 (Kyle Melinn is the editor of the Capitol news service MIRS. You can email him at melinnky@gmail.com.)