Governor Granholm to veto portions of final six state budget bills

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm plans on vetoing portions of the final six 2009-10 state budget bills presented to her Tuesday.

“Granholm has made it clear that she is not afraid to use her veto pen to protect the rights of the citizens,” said Megan Brown, Granholm’s deputy press secretary.

The governor received a new higher education bill Tuesday night and is willing to make more changes, Brown said. She was unhappy with bills concerning higher education, K-12 education, Medicaid and revenue sharing.

Director of Special Projects and Central Michigan University Griffin Endowed Chair Maxine Berman said it once again is coming down to pulling funds from other areas.

“The governor’s point is that she is unhappy with the lack of sufficient funds for education, and now we have to decide if we want to make more cuts or increase taxes,” she said.

Granholm wants to protect promise grants for higher education and wants to take more money from higher-populated school districts to balance the K-12 budget. Berman said this does not necessarily mean money is only being taken from wealthier school districts.

“The larger school districts do not mean just the rich ones,” she said. “This all depends on the number of people in the schools.”

More than $50 million will be cut from some of the state’s highest spending school districts.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop told Granholm in a letter if she expects to see more tax increases to get the money desired for the education budget, she is making a mistake. Bishop said sufficient support will not be there.

Granholm signed a continuation budget Oct. 1 after the 2009-10 state budget deadline was not reached.

The Michigan Promise Scholarship remains an unresolved issue, as Granholm pushed for restored funding after the grant was cut from the interim budget. The scholarship, which gave $4,000 to students who completed at least two years of higher education and qualified through the Michigan Merit Exam, was cut in June to save the state more than $140 million.

Brown said Granholm wants to get the budget completed, but needs cooperation from everyone around her.

“We want everyone to keep an open mind to resolve this budget,” she said.