House Appropriations Chair Rep. Ann Bollin today released the following statement after Attorney General Dana Nessel issued an opinion declaring unconstitutional the law House Republicans used to disapprove work project requests from the State Budget Office:

“Attorney General Dana Nessel’s opinion is wrong on the law and wrong on the facts, and it feels far more like a political defense of Democrats’ pet projects than an objective legal analysis.

“The House Appropriations Committee acted fully within its legal authority under a law that has been on the books for decades — a statute enacted in the 1980s that clearly allows the Legislature to disapprove work projects that do not meet the standards required by law. Nothing about that authority is new, and nothing about our action was unconstitutional.

“What is new is Democrats’ frustration that the days of unchecked slush funds and blank checks are coming to an end.

“This opinion comes from an Attorney General who has never voted on a budget, never analyzed a state budget, and now appears perfectly comfortable defending a system where hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were shuffled through vague work projects with little oversight and no accountability. That is not how responsible government works, and it is not what Michigan taxpayers expect.

“It’s also worth remembering that Attorney General Nessel herself was hiding all of her department’s operations under a single line item until House Republicans stepped in this year to demand transparency and add accountability to her spending. That experience makes this opinion especially hard to take seriously.

“The Legislature has both the authority and the responsibility to oversee how taxpayer dollars are spent. We exercised that responsibility lawfully and in the best interest of the people of Michigan. Political opinions from the Attorney General’s office will not change that reality, nor will they deter House Republicans from continuing to restore accountability to state government.”