LANSING – With little more than a month remaining before the start of the 2007-08 fiscal year, Gov. Jennifer Granholm vowed Tuesday she would do everything within her power to prevent the government from shutting down due to legislative inability to resolve the budget.

She said that threats of attempted recalls should not deter legislators from having the courage to make tough decisions.

“In the face of recalls I hope every legislator has the backbone to do what is right,” Ms. Granholm told reporters. “This is about Michigan’s future.” She did not specify what is “right” but said again that resolving the budget will take a combination of spending cuts, reforms and tax increases.

Granholm made some of her most strident comments on the budget to reporters as other administration sources were beginning to express frustration over the pace of the legislative discussions to resolve budget issues.

The spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) said he hoped Granholm’s resolve to avoid a shutdown meant that she would be sympathetic to a proposal for an early retirement program for as many as 14,000 state workers (the administration has already said it is not supportive of that).

A coalition of various organizations put out a call for the Legislature to “pass a budget that’s more than a fiscal house of cards.”

Granholm said she would work “everyday 24/7” to ensure that a budget is passed before the fiscal year ends.

“I will not allow this Legislature to take us to a government shutdown by their inability to vote on tough bills,” she said. Asked several times how she could block a shutdown Granholm repeated that she would “do everything possible with the tools that I have.”

While she was glad the Legislature finally approved all the first house budget bills – during Wednesday’s session last week – all the budgets proposed, even the Senate measures which cut her initial proposals, would do nothing to close a deficit that could be as much as $1.8 billion.

Granholm said she has had a proposal since February to deal with the budget shortfall, and late last spring the legislative leaders and the Executive Office concurred on a proposal that would allow for cuts, tax increases and reforms. Republicans have since moved away from that agreement, but there still remains no proposed overall comprehensive solution from lawmakers.

Administration sources acknowledged they are weary of waiting for any side in the Legislature to make a comprehensive proposal to resolve the budget. Budget talks between Mr. Bishop and House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) have been ongoing for weeks – with officials on both sides saying the two are making progress – but the two have not outlined any agreements to date.

So far no caucus in the Legislature has proposed an overall solution, either in terms of budget cuts, tax increases or restructuring proposals. Senate Republicans nearly two months ago released a series of reforms under consideration to solve the budget without raising taxes, but have not released their final list of proposals.

Some proposals have come forward, such as a proposal to allow for collective health care insurance among local governments and the proposal to allow for an early retirement program in SB 689 (which will undergo committee scrutiny this week).

Matt Marsden, Bishop’s spokesperson, said Bishop was glad Granholm was also committed to preventing a government shutdown.

He hoped that both Granholm and former Rep. Leon Drolet, who is spearheading the recall efforts, would remember that, “the backbone of the Senate Republican proposals are cuts and reforms and not tax increases.”

But ultimately, in a slap at Drolet, he said, Senate Republicans would do “what is in the best interest of the state and not what some out of state groups want.” The comment is a reference to out of state organizations that are helping Drolet’s Michigan Taxpayers Alliance fund the putative recall efforts.

Meanwhile 17 different groups said the state has for seven years used one-time gimmicks to balance its budget and can no longer afford to continue that tactic. In a statement the groups said the budget needed to be passed without “cuts, gimmicks or last-minute backroom deals.”

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

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