Rep. Bollin named House Appropriations chair, joins GOP leadership seeking budget-writing shakeup

House Republican leadership named state Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Twp.) the new House Appropriations Committee chair Tuesday.

That means she’ll oversee the House’s role in the state budget-writing process, as well as any other spending bills that come through the chamber.

Bollin, a fourth-term lawmaker, said she sees several places where the state could cut spending.

“We’re not coming here because we want to slash everything. What we want to do is increase the transparency and accountability and make sure that every program is giving us value for the dollar,” Bollin said during a press conference for Tuesday’s announcement. “I don’t think that’s unreasonable. In fact, I think that’s what you should expect us to do.”

Republicans have taken control of the state House this year after winning a majority in the November elections.

Representatives Matt Maddock (R-Milford) and Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) will serve as Bollin’s vice chair and minority vice chair.

(Farhat said he wasn’t aware of the pick until the press conference had already begun. A staffer left to find and bring him to the meeting after he had been named. Farhat accepted the offer on the spot and said he hopes to focus on road funding and lowering the cost of living.)

During Tuesday’s announcement, Republicans also unveiled their plans for shaking up the budget-writing process to accomplish their goal of cutting what they called wasteful spending.

One part of that involved splitting up the subcommittee that usually works on the state health department budget into three parts.

One appropriations subcommittee will work on the services side of the department, which runs things like public assistance programs.

Another will focus on the health side of the Department of Health and Human Services. A third will deal with “Medicaid and Behavioral Health.”

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) said the split in writing the MDHHS budget will work alongside other new accountability efforts. He has plans to create subcommittees to work underneath the House Oversight Committee as well.

“You’ve got three oversight committees working hand in hand with three appropriations subcommittees because a lot of this value for your dollars that we’re going to get is going to come out of DHHS and other places,” Hall said.

At more than $37.6 billion, the state health department makes up the largest spending area in the current state budget.

Aside from splitting up the MDHHS budget subcommittee, House Republicans are consolidating the process for some other budget areas. For example, the judiciary and corrections budgets will be combined.

The plan to redesign the budget subcommittees comes after Republicans included wording in the House rules for the 2025-2026 session that requires some reporting of which lawmaker is asking for certain spending items.

That disclosure only applies to what are known as “enhancement grants,” which the Detroit News noted means other spending items could still be anonymously requested.

Republican House Speaker Matt Hall said more transparency requirements could still come in a future resolution.

“That’s why I included it in the rule that way, where it’s done by resolution in a vote of the body so that we can hear the feedback and you see where the gaps are, and then we can look to address those in the rules,” Hall said.

Democrats remain in charge in the state Senate.

When asked if she would consider handling things similarly to Republicans, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) said she didn’t have any plans for a similar shake up.

“Our constituents are looking for us to stand in the gap and to mind the state’s coffers. And whether that’s looking at road funding, essential services in that DHHS budget, look, you can slice and dice the chairs all you want. I want to make sure that people have the services they need,” Anthony told reporters following the press conference.

Anthony, who said she sat in on the press conference to see and congratulate who she’d be working with on the budget, said she wasn’t aware of the full Republican proposals. But, she said, from what she observed, there seemed to be a level of “recycling and theater” regarding the transparency in budget requests requirements.

Legislative budget proposals typically start coming out within the first few months of the year. In the past few years, lawmakers have passed a full budget by the end of June.