Article courtesy of MIRS for SBAM’s Lansing Watchdog newsletter
Read more about the graduated income tax proposal here.
Attempts to get a property tax elimination and ranked choice voting on the 2026 ballot have frozen out after organizers failed to get signatures. Funding coming into the ones left in the field isn’t exactly record setting.
Monday’s Michigan campaign finance deadline showed Invest in MI Kids topped the amount of incoming funding for the three ballot questions still collecting signatures. The ballot question brought in nearly $292,000 in the last quarter of 2025.
Invest in MI Kids also topped the amount going out for the fourth quarter with more than $288,000 going out the door.
The ballot initiative to put a tax on people making over $500,000 per year or couples making $1 million in the state Constitution also saw the highest amount for the year with nearly $528,000.
The more than $239,000 will be the thin wrapping to keep the ballot question going through the bitter winter.
The Coalition to Stop the Business and Family Tax Hike, saw $50,000 raised and $35,000 go out as the business-backed ballot question starts spinning up funding to oppose Invest in MI Kids. The ballot question ended 2025 with nearly $15,000 in the snowbank.
The Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (MMOP) ballot question was skating on a similar frozen pond, with nearly $270,000 coming in during the fourth quarter of 2025. The overall funding for 2025 was sitting at nearly $388,000.
The ballot question had also spent nearly $127,000 for the quarter, which is the bulk of the $140,000 overall spending for the year.
The ballot initiative looking to keep state vendors with contracts over $250,000 from donating to a political party or elected official had the most winter padding of the ballot questions with more than $248,000 in cash on hand.
Voters Not Politicians, who have been supporting both MMOP and Invest in MI Kids, raised nearly $55,000 and spent more than $47,000 for the quarter. The ballot question was also opposing the last ballot question still trying to keep warm over the winter.
The opposing ballot question, Protect MI Free Speech, saw $14,000 added during the quarter and spent nearly $16,500. There was nearly $1,000 left on hand at the end of 2025.
Americans for Citizen Voting – Michigan, the ballot question looking to put the citizenship question on the ballot, did not have a campaign finance filing as of 8:15 p.m. Feb. 2.
The ballot question looking to oppose calling the Michigan constitutional convention, known as ConCon, was able to raise $150,000 and spent more than $70,000. The ballot question retained more than $120,000 to move through the Michigan winter.
The two ballot questions that fell in the frozen tundra were AxMiTax and ranked choice voting.
Rank MI Vote was able to raise more than $24,000 before the snow blanketed the signature gathering for the ballot question, which had spent more than $44,000 in the last bit of 2025 before dropping to the frozen ground after Christmas.
The ballot question ended the 2026 hopes and dreams with more than $63,000 in cash on hand, after spending nearly $215,000 over the course of 2025.
AxMiTax also succumbed to the subzero temperatures and was only able to get a little over $1,000 for the last quarter after spending nearly $4,500.
The ballot question launched founder Karla Wagner into the gubernatorial race, but the nearly $12,500 of cash on hand wouldn’t be of use to the Republican primary race.
One Fair Wage, which is backing the only voter referendum against Public Act 1 of 2025, did not spend or raise anything in the last quarter of 2025, but maintained more than $182,000 going into 2026.
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