Michigan Government Relations

The calendar is the practice

Michigan budget outcomes are set by a handful of statutory dates. The Legislature convenes the second Wednesday in January (Const 1963, art IV, § 13). The Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference meets in the second week of January and the third week of May under MCL 18.1367b(1); the May conference is the one that matters, because the final appropriation bills are built on its numbers. Leadership target agreements follow within weeks, and they carry stipulations on specific line items, not just toplines.

One date is different in 2027. MCL 18.1363(1) gives the Governor 30 days after the Legislature convenes to transmit the executive budget — except in a year in which a newly elected Governor is inaugurated, when 60 days are allowed. Michigan inaugurates a new Governor on January 1, 2027, so the FY2028 executive budget is not due in early February, the way the FY2027 budget was when it was transmitted February 11, 2026. It is due roughly five weeks later.

At the other end of the session, acts passed without immediate effect take effect 91 days after sine die adjournment — the 2025 session adjourned December 23, and its acts took effect March 24, 2026.

If you are a for-profit company, the earmark path is closed

This is the thing most Michigan businesses do not know. MCL 18.1364, effective January 1, 2026, provides that a for-profit entity is not eligible to receive a legislatively directed spending item. A nonprofit qualifies only if it has operated continuously in Michigan for the preceding three years, has had a physical Michigan office for the preceding year, and has a board of directors.

The process is equally concrete. The requesting legislator files a public disclosure form naming the recipient, the project location, the amount, and the public-benefit justification. Legislators outside leadership may request items only within or benefiting their own district. The item must be presented at an appropriations hearing, and posted at least 45 calendar days before the bill passes both chambers.

Two consequences, and we set both expectations before an engagement begins rather than after. A for-profit client's realistic paths to state money are line-item program appropriations, Michigan Strategic Fund and MEDC incentive programs, and competitive grants — not a direct earmark. And the 45-day posting rule means the ask has to be locked roughly six weeks before final passage, about mid-May for a July budget. Tell us what you need from the state budget and we will tell you which path is open.

In Michigan, the client registers too

Under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act, the firm registers and names the client. Michigan runs the other way. The client is the Lobbyist (MCL 4.415(4)); the firm is the Lobbyist Agent (MCL 4.415(5)). Each files its own registration on its own form — joint registration is not allowed. The agent has three calendar days (MCL 4.417(2)), the client fifteen (MCL 4.417(1)), and under Bureau of Elections guidance signing the contract can itself start the clock.

• Reports are semiannual, not quarterly. January 31 covers August 1 through December 31; August 31 covers January 1 through July 31 (MCL 4.418(1)), with a 4 p.m. cut-off. A period with no activity still requires a report.
• A lapsed engagement does not end the filing duty. Reports keep coming due until a final report bearing an effective termination date is actually filed (MCL 4.417(4)).
• Contingent compensation is banned outright — "in any manner" — and a knowing violation is a felony (MCL 4.421(1)). No Michigan engagement can be priced on success.
• Only the lobbying portion of a fee is reportable (R 4.421(c), R 4.458(c)). We allocate each invoice so the client files a contemporaneous number instead of inventing one at the deadline.
• Public entities have no threshold at all. The state, a political subdivision, or a public university becomes a registered Lobbyist the moment it contracts for an agent, regardless of amount (MCL 4.415(4)(d)).
• The thresholds move every January 1, re-indexed to the Detroit consumer price index and announced by December 15 (MCL 4.429a). Any figure you were quoted last year is probably wrong now — which is why you will not find one on this page.

KPG Policy Group is not a law firm and none of this is legal advice. Michigan counsel should confirm your own registration and reporting obligations.

Two capitols, one strategy

Michigan's term limits changed in 2022: a member may serve twelve years combined across both chambers, and all twelve in one (Const 1963, art IV, § 54). Tenure is longer and committee expertise accumulates, so durable Lansing relationships are worth more than they were a decade ago. Departments, meanwhile, are reorganized and renamed by executive order, and a new Governor takes office January 1, 2027 — scope written around a department name goes stale faster than scope written around a function.

We work Michigan and Washington as one engagement because most clients need both: a federal ask is more credible with state validators behind it, and state outcomes often depend on federal money arriving. KPG's founder grew up in Michigan and has testified before the Michigan Senate.