LANSING – Funding priorities such as the Michigan Promise Grant are so critical that Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Monday she is prepared to veto other areas of the budget to help free up funding to cover those priorities if the Legislature will not approve new revenues.

In a press conference, Granholm would not detail what her strategy could be, though there was a strong hint that she may propose transfers of funding, possibly working through the State Administrative Board.

But to do that, Granholm said she still needs to receive the six budgets the Senate has not yet sent her and she called again on the Senate to present or complete action on the budgets for the departments of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (SB 243 ); Human Services (SB 248 ); State Police (SB 253 ); Community Health (HB 4436 ); general government (SB 245 ); and higher education (HB 4441 ).

“It’s a mystery to me why they haven’t been sent,” Granholm said, calling the Senate’s action “perplexing.”

But a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) said the Senate is trying to ensure that a budget agreement reached between Mr. Bishop and House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) to provide for a balanced budget without tax increases is maintained.

Matt Marsden also said Granholm’s demand for the budgets to be sent immediately is perplexing since the Legislature acceded to her demand that a continuation budget be approved and now has until October 31 to complete work on the budget.

He also said before her press conference that Granholm had indicated to Bishop that she would meet with him to discuss her specific concerns with the budget bills. Given her comments at the press conference, such a meeting may no longer be needed, Marsden said.

Granholm said the budgets do not meet her priorities to ensure more students can go to college, that communities do not have to lay off more police officers and firefighters and that Medicaid services are not cut too severely.

Because it was so critical to save those items, Granholm said, she could “veto things I don’t think are as important as they do.” But she would not indicate what those would be.

Doing so could provide enough funds to help pay for some of those priorities, she said.

Granholm said she would not veto entire budgets, but she made it clear that she would veto sections of the budgets.

She also was quick to correct reporters who suggested her plan was to transfer funds through the Administrative Board, saying only that was an option, not her strategy.

But it was time for the Legislature to complete its part of the budget process by sending her the remaining budget bills, Granholm said.

“The speaker and the Senate majority leader crafted a deal which I oppose, that’s their prerogative,” she said. But constitutionally, now she has to act.

“The constitution is clear: The budget is not complete until it is acted on by the governor,” she said.

Granholm also said to speculation that the Senate is holding off presenting the budget bills until closer to October 31 to force a second potential shutdown that such a strategy would be “foolish.”

While legislative Republicans insist on completing the 2009-10 budget without tax increases, Granholm said compared to the potentially devastating nature of the budget cuts, the revenue increases proposed are very targeted.

The governor also criticized the tax proposals passed by the Senate on Thursday saying they failed to finance the K-12 School Aid budget. In particularly, she blasted the freeze in the Earned Income Tax Credit to finance a phase-out of the surcharge the Michigan Business Tax as a “dollar for dollar” transfer from the pockets of the working poor to businesses.

If Granholm does intend to use the Administrative Board to make budget transfers, Marsden said Senate members would have to see if that would even be constitutional.

But while the governor has outlined her broad complaints, Marsden said, “We need to have a greater discussion on what her problems are.”

It’s critical to make sure the budget agreement reached between Bishop and Dillon be protected, Marsden said, and he would not discuss possibly attempting a veto override on any provisions she strikes out.

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

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