A Michigan think tank is going to court to block state funding earmarked for two local baseball parks, including the home of the Lansing Lugnuts.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is suing the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity over a $1 million grant approved for Lansing’s Jackson Field, as well as $1.5 million in funding for Jimmy John’s Field in Utica.
The lawsuit claims the funding violates the state constitution because it was approved without the support of two-thirds of state lawmakers required for appropriating state funds for “local or private purposes.”
Patrick Wright, the Mackinac Center’s vice president for legal affairs, said the lawsuit is about the process, not the ballparks.
“We’re not meaning to single them out in a negative way, that this is a particularly good or bad earmark,” he said.
Wright says the center is targeting funding for the ballparks in Lansing and Utica as examples of state pork-barrel spending that was improperly approved in recent years.
“Lansing’s field is municipally owned and … Jimmy John’s is privately owned,” Wright said. “So that allows us to test two separate clauses in the constitutional provision we’re talking about.”
The Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity has not yet responded for a comment on the lawsuit. The Lansing Entertainment & Public Facilities Authority, which operates Jackson Field for the city of Lansing, declined to comment.
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