Governor Gretchen Whitmer pardoned two turkeys named Faygo and Vernors Tuesday in what’s become an annual pun-packed tradition.
A wintery mix was starting to fall Tuesday afternoon when guests and reporters packed inside of a tent on the east state Capitol lawn for the turkey pardon.
Whitmer started the squawk talk right away, greeting attendees as her “fellow Michi-gizzards and Michi-gobblers.
”The governor shared some of her highlights from the year, like new funding for an air national guard base in Macomb County.
“I went to the White House to talk turkey and save Selfridge. We carved out money to protect our Great Lakes,” Whitmer said before proclaiming, “We lived our baste lives and got things done. Because we believe in baking the world a better place.
Unlike past years, there were two turkeys pardoned this time and neither had a punny name, like “Aidan Cluckinson” (2024) or “Dolly Pardon” (2023) — nods to the Detroit Lions star defensive end and the country music icon.
Diana Wallace is executive director of Maybury Farms, where Faygo and Vernors came from. She was still excited for the birds.
“Where else can you get a pardon two days before they have to be processed?” Wallace said.
She said Faygo and Vernors’ siblings weren’t so lucky, though she assured the audience the animals were “well cared for” and given great lives.
In addition to pardoning the two turkeys, Whitmer signed four bills into law Tuesday.
Two of them aim to increase budget transparency. The new laws deal with earmarks, or specific spending items lawmakers put into a budget for special projects often in their districts.
Going forward, lawmakers will have to publicly request those earmarks at least 45 days before voting on them. A hearing on those earmarks will also need to take place.
Besides setting timelines, the laws ban for-profit companies from receiving an earmark. And nonprofits must meet requirements like having been in operation for at least the past three years.
Supporters argue the measures will prevent backroom dealing and bring accountability into the budget process after similar policies were piloted this year.
“For far too long, politicians and Lansing insiders have abused the system to stuff the budget full of anonymous pork projects they can’t defend. That abuse ends today,” House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) said in a press release Tuesday.
Despite the efforts this budget cycle, final spending amounts in the state budget were not unveiled or voted on until the middle of the night, well past the state's deadline for passing a spending plan.
The laws received bipartisan support in the Legislature. But some lawmakers argued full transparency would only come with applying open records laws to the Legislature and governor’s office.
Hall has so far refused to take up Senate-passed bills to do so.
Another law signed Tuesday could give legislative police more power to work across the state. Usually, the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms only have jurisdiction in and around the state Capitol, in places like meeting chambers, office buildings, and parking areas.
The new law will let them work beyond that in matters concerning the security of lawmakers, their families, or staff.
That could mean a legislative sergeant would investigate threats made against a lawmaker rather than, or in addition to, a local police department or sheriff’s office.
Majority leadership in each chamber would get to decide when those expanded duties kick in, sparking some concerns about political influence in investigations and transparency.
A final bill signed Tuesday could make it easier for zoos to keep operating breeding programs for large carnivores like lions or tigers, even if they have received a critical noncompliance notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in another area of the zoo.
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