State Rep. Matt Maddock, vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee, today released the following statement after Attorney General Dana Nessel issued an opinion declaring unconstitutional the law House Republicans used to disapprove work project requests from the State Budget Office:

“Dana Nessel’s fan fiction is built on a false premise: that controlling where unspent money goes is the same thing as running a program. For over 40 years, the Legislature has treated lapsed funds in these situations as part of the appropriation decision itself.

“Dana Nessel borrows flawed cases in completely different situations. Drunk Dana erases that distinction and pretends the Legislature surrendered its authority the moment a budget was signed. It did not. The work-project statute is a conditional appropriation framework, not a legislative veto.

“Under Nessel’s trashy zine, the Governor alone decides when taxpayer money stops being subject to legislative control. That is not separation of powers. It is a theft of appropriations and the process from the people’s elected representatives to the Governor.”