Michigan Department of State presents FY26 budget request, seeks restricted revenue to fill technology and legal positions

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government on the record heard the Michigan Department of State's budget presentation and questions on funding, staffing and service delivery.

Cindy Paradigm, financial services director for the Michigan Department of State, told the committee that MDOS collected about $3,500,000,000 in fiscal 2024 and distributed the receipts to 13 state agencies. "Of the $3,500,000,000 MDOS collected in FY24, $2.6 billion was for roads and education," Paradigm said. She told the panel that MDOS spent about $278,000,000 on its own operations and that the agency's ratio of operating cost to total collections is about 8 percent: "for every dollar collected, only 8 cents was needed to fund MDOS operations."

The governor's FY26 recommended budget for MDOS is $296,597,400, an increase of $4,757,500 over the current FY25 appropriation. Paradigm said the administration's only new restricted-revenue investment is $1,600,000 in authorization to fill four positions in central…