LANSING – Saying she will use her veto power to “shape this budget to protect the priorities of Michigan families,” Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Thursday that a 2009-10 budget may have been completed, but it is still not done.

“I will continue to fight for the right budget” for the state, Granholm said.

The budget completed by the Legislature, including the continuation budget, after a brief government shutdown occurred at midnight, is a “fiscal house of cards” that relies too heavily on federal stimulus funds and will make the task of completing work on the 2010-11 budget that much more difficult, she said.

“The constitutional deadline may have been met, but the work on this budget is far from over,” Granholm said.

The Legislature actually passed a continuation budget after the midnight deadline and still has yet to pass a continuation budget for school aid.

Additional revenues will have to be part of the final budget, but Granholm would not single out a specific revenue measure. She said she had already provided a list of proposed tax changes to help bring in as much as $600 million in revenues.

Lt. Governor John Cherry Jr., in a radio interview (see related story), said most of the focus on revenues would be on tax credits and loopholes. And Budget Director Bob Emerson said the focus is less on what the administration might propose as revenue increases, but what lawmakers can pass.

Republicans blasted Granholm’s threatened vetoes. Sen. John Pappageorge (R-Troy) said the state has to do more with less because the public and businesses are suffering in the depths of the economic crisis.

But further action is needed because the budget is too destructive for Michigan families, hurting local governments through its revenue sharing cuts, hurting the state’s ability to diversify its economy, and rending its ability to increase the number of college students by cutting the Michigan Promise scholarship, Granholm said.

In fact, Granholm’s voice grew slightly husky as she recounted taking a call in her constituent services office from a community college student who needed the assistance the Michigan Promise offers. The student did not know who she was, Granholm said, but he pleaded “tell her” how much the promise scholarship was needed.

And she urged that other students, their parents and all others who would be badly affected by the budget contact the Legislature and tell them that the budget must be changed.

While she said would veto budgets, Granholm did not single out any bills or sections of bills for excision. She said she would review the budgets carefully before making any decisions.

And she acknowledged vetoing budgets or portions of budgets to add back programs was difficult. “I can’t veto in revenue,” she said.

But she said several times she would “use every tool at my disposal” to make changes to the budget.

She did not address the idea of using the vetoes as bargaining chips, but Cherry implied such in his radio interview when he spoke of her vetoing pet projects of lawmakers.

Adding revenues to the budget is not just critical from the standpoint of being able to restore some cuts, Granholm said, but also to help the state prepare for the 2010-11 budget.

Using too much federal stimulus money now to close gaps, the budget leaves open the possibility of even greater difficulties in dealing with the next year’s budget, she said.

That budget will require the state and local governments to look at greater restructuring, she said, including the possibility on consolidating school districts.

In reaction, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) all but dared Granholm to issue vetoes.

“She can cut what she wants,” he said. “We’d be willing to talk to her about cuts. That’s what our plan was from the very beginning. If she wants to cut more out of government, then God bless her. Let her go ahead and do what she has to do. We’ll work with her on that.”

But Bishop also criticized the possibility that Granholm would use her line-item veto power to reject programs popular with Republicans.

“It just seems absurd to me that after going through this whole process that we’re now in the phase of being vindictive,” he said. “It’s not even about programs that aren’t good or maybe not functional or maybe not performing. It’s about which ones she can identify that are the ones we like the most and the ones that we think function the best and we think perform the best.”

House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) said negotiations on the budget will continue over the coming days, adding he wants to sit down at the table to see what issues the governor has with the budgets.

“I want to see what she wants corrected,” he said.

Dillon said that the Legislature moved the continuation budget so that Granholm would have time to look over the spending.

But Granholm might not get the opportunity sign or veto every budget anytime soon. The Senate continues to hold six of the most controversial budgets with motions to reconsider immediate effect.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt) said the Senate might hold the remaining budgets throughout October until the continuation budget expires at midnight November 1.

“Why should we send (them) to the governor?” he said. “The governor’s said those are budgets she doesn’t like. …I don’t see us sending them to the governor at this point.”

Budgets that remain in the Senate are those for the departments of Energy Labor and Economic Growth (SB 243 ), Human Services (SB 248 ), State Police (SB 253 ) and Community Health (HB 4436 ) as well as the budgets for general government (SB 245 ) and higher education (HB 4441 ).

Cropsey blasted Granholm’s handling of the budget, tweaking her about a recent trade mission to Japan.

“It really is unbelievable to me that she was so obstructionist,” he said. “I wish she would have stayed in Japan another three weeks.”

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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