Attorney General Dana Nessel presents FY26 request, seeks $950,000 from forfeiture proceeds for retail-crime unit

Attorney General Dana Nessel told the Michigan Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government that the executive recommendation for her office’s fiscal 2026 budget is $58.8 million in general fund/general purpose (GFGP), $132.4 million in total funding and 629 classified FTEs, and that the office is seeking several targeted authorizations and program funds to maintain prosecutions, consumer protections and special investigative units.

Nessel, who spoke at the subcommittee’s meeting, summarized program results and new requests and described the department’s reliance on settlements and forfeitures to support some operations. “The people who work at the Michigan Department of Attorney General are some of the finest public servants that I've ever had the opportunity to work with,” she said.

Why it matters: the attorney general’s office both defends the state and brings litigation that recovers money for the state and municipalities; budget and authorization changes affect staffing and the continuity of several investigative units that Nessel cited as returning substantial financial or public-safety value.

Major program highlights and figures - Caseload and recoveries: Nessel said the office anticipates roughly 48,000 active litigation cases in the coming year (not including investigations or expungement work). The office has averaged about $435 million a year in awards payable to the state and residents over the past four fiscal years; Nessel said recent opioid settlements have produced about $1.6 billion in total settlements to date. She said the state has distributed $282 million into the Michigan Opioid Healing and Recovering Fund and local governments have received at least $176 million so far. - Child support enforcement: since the unit’s inception the office reported $426 million recovered for custodial parents and the state, covering almost 31,000 children; Nessel said the unit’s operating cost is roughly $5 million per year and last year’s recoveries were about $26 million. - Utilities and rate litigation: the special litigation unit that handles utility rate cases returned an estimated $438 million in savings to customers in 2024 versus the amounts utilities sought before the Michigan Public Service Commission. - Consumer protection and identity theft: the consumer protection division reported direct recoveries of more than $16 million in 2024, issued about 142 consumer alerts last year, registered and licensed over 12,000 charities and professional fundraisers annually, and logged roughly 10,000 written complaints and 24,000 calls. A Michigan Identity Theft Support team assisted “over a thousand” residents last year, Nessel said. The office is pursuing statutory changes to expand the Michigan Consumer Protection Act’s reach into regulated industries; a case is pending before the Michigan Supreme Court that could affect that authority. - Organized Retail Crime (ORC): Nessel described the ORC force team as a national model and asked for authorization to spend $950,000 from unadjudicated forfeited property to operate the unit on a revenue-neutral basis. Since April 2023, she reported 54 ORC investigations, 71 defendants charged and more than $2 million seized. - Sexual assault/forensic initiatives: the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SACI) — funded by prior legislative appropriations — handled cold-case evidence work with partner counties, and the newer Operation Survivor Justice partners with U.S. Marshals and counties to locate and extradite defendants. Nessel said Operation Survivor Justice reviewed 42 cases and had prosecuted/extradited multiple defendants; funding for that initiative includes a $500,000 DOJ grant and $1 million from the legislature (status of federal grant funding was discussed during questioning). - Sentinel project and long-term care oversight: surprise visits to long-term care facilities — with a licensed nurse accompanying investigators — are intended to detect abuse, neglect and poor wound care. Nessel said the office completed 36 sentinel site visits in 2024.

Budget requests and authorizations - FY26 executive recommendation: $58.8M GFGP; $132.4M total; 629 classified FTEs. - Targeted requests described by staff: $900,000 for a price-gouging unit (consumer protection), $600,000 for tribal legal services (to represent the state in treaty- and other state-vs-tribe matters), and $950,000 for the ORC force team funded from unadjudicated property seizures so the unit can be self-funded. - Boilerplate change (section 3.14): staff explained language that would reauthorize $2.7 million in previously authorized Flint-related funds so the office could use those settlement-proceeds authorities for other emergent litigation or defenses that may arise without seeking additional general fund support. Staff said the statewide average balance in that fund in recent years is closer to $6 million and unused money lapses to the general fund at fiscal year-end.

Federal partnerships and capacity concerns Nessel told members she has “grave concerns” about recent changes in federal agency staffing and priorities and that waning federal enforcement resources — she cited the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other federal partners such as the FTC, FCC and the FBI — could shift additional consumer-protection and enforcement workload to the state office. She said that will increase demand on state resources if federal partners reduce collaboration.

Questions from committee members and clarifications Committee members pressed for details on unadjudicated forfeiture proceeds (how the money is held, when it can be spent, and why it is called “unadjudicated”); staff explained that criminal forfeiture follows conviction, monies are held in interest-bearing accounts administered through state Treasury processes, and the proposed authority would allow the office to use adjudicated proceeds to stand up revenue-neutral investigative units. Members also asked about Operation Survivor Justice funding status; staff said the department is still awaiting a $500,000 federal grant and has used legislative funds to begin the work.

Votes at a glance - Minutes of the subcommittee’s Feb. 27 meeting: motion to approve made by Senator Bayer, seconded by Senator Kleinfeld; approved without objection. (Roll call earlier in the meeting recorded Senators Cherry, Bayer, Kleinfeld, Albert and Hauck as present.)

Ending The subcommittee did not take additional formal votes on the fiscal 2026 executive recommendation at the hearing; staff and the attorney general said they will return materials and data on specific performance metrics and grant statuses upon request.