LANSING, MI — The new 2026 state budget includes roughly $50 million in earmarks to local governments around Michigan to upgrade water and sewer systems, rebuild dams, build trails and expand parks.

Michigan lawmakers approved the pet projects in a $81 billion budget passed overnight on Friday, Oct. 3, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign this week.

The earmarks are among roughly $160 million in new, legislatively-directed pet spending approved alongside new reforms that prohibit such earmarks from going to for-profit recipients and which require lawmakers to publicly sponsor and justify them.

The local money is distributed by state departments, which house and disburse the funds but exclude the money from base program budgets.

The largest standalone item is $20 million split between the city of Midland and the Four Lakes Task Force following the 2020 Edenville dam failure. The money will pay for building new flood-resistant infrastructure and offset dam rebuilding costs which are being levied on homeowners.

One earmark notable for its exclusion is $50 million proposed for Wakefield Township in the Upper Peninsula that would have gone to upgrade infrastructure around the controversial Copperwood Mine near the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

Surviving earmarks include:

Water, wastewater, flooding, dams and culverts

• Midland will receive $10 million for flood-mitigation projects.
• Four Lakes Task Force will receive $9.8 million for failed dam reconstruction.
• Mount Clemens will receive $3 million to replace lead service lines.
• Oakland-Macomb Interceptor Drain Drainage District will receive $2.5 million for odor- and corrosion-control facilities.
• Lake Mitchell Sewer Authority in Wexford County will receive $2.4 million for sewer-system repairs.
• Portage will receive $2 million to control U.S. 131 stormwater runoff.
• Cadillac will receive $1.9 million to replace failed culverts.
• Kawkawlin Township will receive $1.94 million for flood-control infrastructure.
• Rockwood will receive $1.5 million to upgrades its wastewater plant.
• Saginaw County Road Commission will receive $1.2 million for environmental-compliance and storm-water-management upgrades.
• Lathrop will receive $1.1 million to replace a water main.
• Grosse Pointe Farms will receive $1 million for seawall repair.
• Blendon Township will receive $920,000 for water security and infrastructure.
• Ingham County will receive $750,000 to repair the Lake Lansing Dam.
• Marysville will receive $750,000 to replace the seawall at its drinking water plant.
• Redford will receive $750,000 to build a combined sewer overflow basin.
• Ingham County will receive $500,000 for water infrastructure projects.

Parks, trails and outdoor recreation

• Rochester Hills will receive $2 million for park upgrades.
• Jackson County will receive $1.5 million for The Cascades park improvements.
• Harbor Beach will receive $1 million for a campground expansion.
• Huron-Waterloo Pathways Initiative will receive $1 million for trail development.
• Ann Arbor will receive $1 million for the Treeline Conservancy and urban trails.
• Jackson will receive $750,000 for Ella Sharp Park trail upgrades.

Others

• Kirtland Community College will receive $100,000 for a timber harvest simulator.
• St. Clair Shores will receive $1 million for nautical mile enhancements.

The earmarks are a fraction of large department budgets.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) is receiving $968 million next year, a 16 percent increase over its 2025 appropriation. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will receive $543 million, a 2.5 percent increase over 2025.

The departments both received various one-time appropriations for internal programs. At EGLE, one-time funding included $34 million for state revolving fund infrastructure grants, $17.4 million for lead service line replacements, $2.3 million for the Michigan Geological Survey and $5 million for document digitization.

At the DNR, one-time appropriations included $2.5 million for arctic grayling fish species reintroduction and $14 million to continue recovery from the March ice storm — which some lawmakers say isn’t enough to repair all the snarled utility lines and wrecked forest.

The budget also retained a prohibition inserted by Republicans which prevents the DNR from using fisheries division money to list the Little Manistee River as a ‘natural river’ where some development is limited to create a wild and scenic corridor.

Lawmakers did not approve increased hunting and fishing license fees and an opt-out program on state park passes that would have generated more money for the DNR, which had requested more money to offset aging equipment and mounting costs.