By Liz Nass
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel propped up her department’s victories as part of a budget presentation Wednesday, but said in the end, this next budget will not be her budget, but the next attorney general’s to inherit.
This year’s executive recommendation for the AG budget remained virtually stagnant with the rest of the law enforcement budgets. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget recommendation for the Department of Attorney General totals $130.7 million ($48 million General Fund), a 3.4% increase (6.1% General Fund).
As part of her final budget presentation in front of the Senate Appropriations General Government Subcommittee, Nessel mostly focused on the different units that have brought money back to the state as part of federal lawsuits, opioid settlements and utility actions.
“I don’t know if a Republican will succeed me,” Nessel said. “I don’t know if a Democrat will succeed me, but it doesn’t matter. These are all, I think, things that we’re doing in the department and initiatives that we’ve put into place, either by myself or my predecessors, that I stand behind, and I hope that my legacy will be that I will leave this budget in place in a way that whoever succeeds me, they can do as much as they possibly can in the way in which they’d like to do it to serve the people of our state.”
Nessel only pointed out one specific piece in the budget where the department wanted to see more funding: the antitrust team as part of the Corporate Oversight Division. While the team only receives a total of $1 million, she said the office was particularly under-sourced in team power.
Nessel said she would like to see the budget increase to $2 million to address an expectedly higher case rate in the antitrust division to support five new attorneys in the division.
“The better funded our antitrust work is, the more revenue that we can potentially bring back to the state,” Nessel said.
However, she also said the utility advocacy team was also underfunded, receiving $1.9 million in restricted funds, which she says is a “very low, low amount to represent utility rate payers.”
The division has five people, including four lawyers and a secretary, which is a small staff compared to other states, like Indiana’s office that has $7.7 million per year with a staff of 50 people, or Ohio’s unit with $6.7 million in funding and 32 people on staff.
However, she emphasized the team saved $538 million in rates in 2025 and already $160 million in 2026.
Nessel also championed her federal actions, filing 54 lawsuits against the federal government since President Donald Trump took office. She said 23 of these cases have preliminary orders and have recouped $2.23 billion in funding for the state.
With these lawsuits, as well as opioid settlements, the department is pulling in a surplus of funding at times – anywhere from $8 million to $15 million in the past several years.
Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-West Bloomfield, said she was interested in seeing how the department could transfer these funds into other more underfunded efforts, like the sexual assault kits.
Peter Manning, chief deputy attorney general, said the money in the past has lapsed to the general fund, and the Legislature would have to permit this use of funding through boilerplate, but they would support that effort.
Sen. Veronica Klinefelt, D-Eastpointe, worried about the federal actions fizzling out without Nessel in office.
Nessel said it is likely her successor would inherit some of the cases that are being appealed from the federal government, so she would be interested in talking to candidates, specifically the newly endorsed Republican candidate for attorney general, Doug Lloyd, as to why it’s important to keep pursuing these cases to bring money back to the state.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit will be facing off the endorsement from the Democratic party for the attorney general race Sunday.
Ongoing funding recommendations from the executive recommendation include $10.8 million ($4.8 million General Fund) for criminal investigations and prosecutions, $9.4 million ($1.9 million General Fund) for enforcing corporate oversight and $4.1 million ($1 million General Fund) for child support enforcement.
Another funding recommendation is $4.7 million, almost all General Fund, to investigate claims of wrongful imprisonment.
One recommendation for one-time funding would allocate $2.6 million to the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council to train local prosecutors. The council is a state agency that was funded with General Fund since its creation in 1972, until the 2025-26 fiscal year budget, when the council lost its employees and General Fund money in a transfer to the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel propped up her department’s victories as part of a budget presentation Wednesday, but said in the end, this next budget will not be her budget, but the next attorney general’s to inherit.
This year’s executive recommendation for the AG budget remained virtually stagnant with the rest of the law enforcement budgets. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget recommendation for the Department of Attorney General totals $130.7 million ($48 million General Fund), a 3.4% increase (6.1% General Fund).
As part of her final budget presentation in front of the Senate Appropriations General Government Subcommittee, Nessel mostly focused on the different units that have brought money back to the state as part of federal lawsuits, opioid settlements and utility actions.
“I don’t know if a Republican will succeed me,” Nessel said. “I don’t know if a Democrat will succeed me, but it doesn’t matter. These are all, I think, things that we’re doing in the department and initiatives that we’ve put into place, either by myself or my predecessors, that I stand behind, and I hope that my legacy will be that I will leave this budget in place in a way that whoever succeeds me, they can do as much as they possibly can in the way in which they’d like to do it to serve the people of our state.”
Nessel only pointed out one specific piece in the budget where the department wanted to see more funding: the antitrust team as part of the Corporate Oversight Division. While the team only receives a total of $1 million, she said the office was particularly under-sourced in team power.
Nessel said she would like to see the budget increase to $2 million to address an expectedly higher case rate in the antitrust division to support five new attorneys in the division.
“The better funded our antitrust work is, the more revenue that we can potentially bring back to the state,” Nessel said.
However, she also said the utility advocacy team was also underfunded, receiving $1.9 million in restricted funds, which she says is a “very low, low amount to represent utility rate payers.”
The division has five people, including four lawyers and a secretary, which is a small staff compared to other states, like Indiana’s office that has $7.7 million per year with a staff of 50 people, or Ohio’s unit with $6.7 million in funding and 32 people on staff.
However, she emphasized the team saved $538 million in rates in 2025 and already $160 million in 2026.
Nessel also championed her federal actions, filing 54 lawsuits against the federal government since President Donald Trump took office. She said 23 of these cases have preliminary orders and have recouped $2.23 billion in funding for the state.
With these lawsuits, as well as opioid settlements, the department is pulling in a surplus of funding at times – anywhere from $8 million to $15 million in the past several years.
Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-West Bloomfield, said she was interested in seeing how the department could transfer these funds into other more underfunded efforts, like the sexual assault kits.
Peter Manning, chief deputy attorney general, said the money in the past has lapsed to the general fund, and the Legislature would have to permit this use of funding through boilerplate, but they would support that effort.
Sen. Veronica Klinefelt, D-Eastpointe, worried about the federal actions fizzling out without Nessel in office.
Nessel said it is likely her successor would inherit some of the cases that are being appealed from the federal government, so she would be interested in talking to candidates, specifically the newly endorsed Republican candidate for attorney general, Doug Lloyd, as to why it’s important to keep pursuing these cases to bring money back to the state.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit will be facing off the endorsement from the Democratic party for the attorney general race Sunday.
Ongoing funding recommendations from the executive recommendation include $10.8 million ($4.8 million General Fund) for criminal investigations and prosecutions, $9.4 million ($1.9 million General Fund) for enforcing corporate oversight and $4.1 million ($1 million General Fund) for child support enforcement.
Another funding recommendation is $4.7 million, almost all General Fund, to investigate claims of wrongful imprisonment.
One recommendation for one-time funding would allocate $2.6 million to the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council to train local prosecutors. The council is a state agency that was funded with General Fund since its creation in 1972, until the 2025-26 fiscal year budget, when the council lost its employees and General Fund money in a transfer to the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
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