LANSING – Because of major cuts the state will have to enact this year, the public will have to accept “a different form of government,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) said in a newspaper interview.
“I don’t like to say we’ve got to cut, cut, cut. I never thought I’d be in government to say that. But it is the reality of our times. This is the discussion we have to have,” Bishop said in an interview run by the Eccentric Newspapers.
“Important stuff” is going to be cut, Bishop said, which could include merging departments and cutting state worker pay.
While state officials hope they will get relief for this year’s budget from the federal government in terms of a stimulus package, Bishop said he hoped that the federal requirement will require Michigan and all the states to come up with deficit reduction plans as a condition for receiving any federal funds.
The budget will be the dominant theme of the year, Bishop told the weekly papers, and he repeated comments he had made last month that the executive order cuts adopted then were not enough to meet the size of the budget problems the state will face.
Bishop also said the Senate will have to take the lead on resolving the budget issues from the legislative side since more than one-third of the House members are new this year.
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